The two leaders met for more than an hour on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers’ meeting in the Laotian capital this year, marking their sixth meeting since ties were rekindled in June last year after a tense hiatus that saw most high-level contacts between Washington and Beijing halted.
“The president and the vice president noted that both believe stability in the relationship is important, and they both believe maintaining a rules-based order is important,” said a senior State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks candidly.
Blinken’s willingness to speak on behalf of Harris as well as the president was a sign the administration is taking steps to signal political continuity to U.S. rivals after Biden’s surprise decision about a week ago to not seek reelection. The top U.S. diplomat typically speaks for the president and does not profess the vice president’s views in international conversations, but this was not the first time he has mentioned Harris with Chinese officials, a State Department official said.
Harris was identified as the leading Democratic candidate last week.
“Obviously, things are a little different now than they have been in the past,” the official said. Blinken said, “The vice president [Chinese] President Xi Jinping [Jinping] “He’s mentioned her before because it’s going to be in Bangkok in 2022, but obviously the situation is different now because it’s a different situation than what we envisioned in our previous meetings.”
Blinken used his meeting to list U.S. grievances in negotiations with China, but State Department officials gave no indication that substantive progress had been made on any of the key topics. Chinese companies continue to supply key components to Russia’s defense industry. Blinken warned Wang not to disrupt Philippine resupply capabilities to ships and bases in the South China Sea, which China claims, and warned Wang not to threaten Taiwan.
“The Secretary reaffirmed that the United States remains committed to advancing its vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, working with our allies and partners. He stressed the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” State Department spokesman Matt Miller said in a statement.
As vice president, Harris made three trips to Asia, working to build relationships with regional leaders to counter China’s efforts to pressure its neighbors and assert superiority over them. Her supporters say the former prosecutor is particularly infuriated by global rule-breaking and would continue Biden’s policy of taking a firm stance against authoritarian nations that seek to subvert the post-World War II system of international law and governance.
