Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman Arrives in Tianjin

July 25, 2021 (EIRNS)—Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman arrived in Tianjin today, where she will meet July 26 with Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng, who is now in charge of U.S.-China relations, and then will meet with Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Yesterday, Wang Yi warned the U.S. that the meeting should not be a repeat of Anchorage in March, saying “if the United States has not learned to treat other countries equally, China, [and] the international community have the obligation to help the United States make up for this lesson.... There has never been a country superior to others in the world, and China will not accept such a claim by any country.”

Nevertheless, many of China’s experts on the U.S. are optimistic that the meetings will lead to an improved relationship and that Sherman will seek common ground on issues of mutual interest. Ni Feng, the head of the Institute of American Studies at CASS, characterized it as part of the process of resuming normal exchanges between China and the United States. Other scholars report that at Anchorage, the Biden Administration had not yet finished its review of how it intended to tackle U.S.-China relations, but that now that has been concluded or is near completion, and the U.S. has voiced that it would like to have a relationship with China.