Beijing urges Washington to stop 'demonising' China as US official visits

Beijing urged Washington to stop "demonizing" China on July 26 as rancour marked the start of talks with the highest-level U.S. envoy to visit under President Joe Biden's administration.

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman's visit to the northern city of Tianjin is the first major meeting between the world's leading economies since March discussions in Anchorage between the countries' top diplomats collapsed into mudslinging.

Sherman's trip aims to seek "guardrails" as ties continue to deteriorate on a range of issues from cybersecurity and tech supremacy to human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

"The hope may be that by demonizing China, the U.S. could somehow... blame China for its own structural problems," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng told Sherman, in a readout issued by China's foreign ministry early on July 26.

"We urge the United States to change its highly misguided mindset and dangerous policy," the statement quoted Xie as saying, adding that Washington views China as an "imagined enemy".

Xie also described relations as at a "stalemate" and facing "serious difficulties".

He claimed that Chinese people view the United States' "adversarial rhetoric as a thinly veiled attempt to contain and suppress China", in comments reminiscent of the fiery exchange between Washington and Beijing's top diplomats Antony Blinken and Yang Jiechi in Alaska.

Sherman will also meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

She tweeted on July 25 that she had spoken with U.S. businesses about "the challenges they're facing in China", and also sent her "heartfelt condolences" to flood victims in Henan province.

The United States said last week it was hoping to use the "candid" talks as an opportunity to...

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