The Chinese have been "in a cold war" with the United States for decades, but after the heated meetings in Anchorage between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Communist Party foreign affairs chief Yang Jiechi, and their delegations, "we're now finally waking up to the fact," former Trump administration deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland told Newsmax TV Saturday.
"The Chinese came to that meeting, and they laid down the law," said McFarland on Newsmax TV's "The Count." "They told them, this is what we expect. This is what we want you to do, America ... this is not open for negotiation, and we'll talk to your negotiators about the other things."
McFarland also said that what happened at the meeting should have been expected.
"They called out China, sort of trash talked China before the meeting so of course, the Chinese were going to trash talk them right back," said McFarland, adding that it's good that the animosity is out in the open.
As the meetings opened Thursday, Blinken and Yang took aim at each other's country's policies.
Blinken said the Biden administration is united with its allies in its push against Chinese authoritarianism, but Yang pushed back, slamming the United States and accusing Washington of hypocrisy for its critiques of Beijing on several issues, including with its actions in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan; the cyberattacks on the United States; and economic coercion of U.S. allies.
"They’re not merely internal matters, and (it's) why we feel an obligation to raise these issues here today," said Blinken.
Yang, though, said the U.S. must pushing its own version of democracy at a time when it has failed with its own human rights problems. He also accused Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and other U.S. officials of being condescending.
McFarland, though, pointed out that the same Chinese officials said similar things when meeting with the Trump administration in the early days, but President Donald Trump responded by opening a dialogue with Taiwan.
She also said that it has appeared that the Chinese "owned the meeting," but she pointed out that the Biden team wanted to talk tough because the administration has come under a great deal of criticism, and "rightly so" for being soft on China.
"I think they wanted to come out swinging and looking tough, but what they didn't expect was that the Chinese would swing right back," said McFarland.
The Chinese also believe that America is declining and "the 21st century belongs to China," said McFarland.
"(They think) the U.S. democracy is now dysfunctional and the only way forward is for countries to adopt a Chinese model of authoritarian government and end state capitalism," said McFarland. "You're not going to convince them otherwise until you can do demonstrable power plays to show them overwise."
She noted that under Trump, the administration used the doctrine of peace through strength brought by late President Ronald Reagan.
"What that means is that the United States remains the strongest power economically, technologically, militarily, diplomatically in every way, and then when we have these international conversations, it's the United States setting the stage, not China," said McFarland.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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