The US on Monday said that it has no plans to lift sanctions on Chinese Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu (李尚福), appearing to backtrack on comments made a day earlier by US President Joe Biden while he attended the G7 summit in Japan.
Speaking to reporters in Washington, US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller denied the US government was entertaining the idea of lifting sanctions on Li.
China has rebuffed US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s request to meet Li next month at a defense forum in Singapore because of the sanctions.
Photo: AP
“No, we are not,” Miller said when asked if the state department was considering lifting the sanctions.
He added that Biden “made clear that we are not planning to lift any sanctions on him or on China more broadly.”
Asked on Sunday whether the US would lift sanctions on Li so he could meet Austin, Biden said: “That’s under negotiation right now.”
More broadly, Biden voiced optimism that US-China relations would “begin to thaw very shortly” after the shooting down of an alleged Chinese spy balloon thwarted positive momentum stemming from a meeting between the US president and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) last year.
Tensions remain high on a number of fronts, with China accusing the US of seeking to contain its rise by restricting access to advanced technology and supporting Taiwan.
Despite the heated rhetoric, the White House has started engaging with China on multiple fronts.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met Chinese Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Wang Yi (王毅) in Vienna earlier this month, and Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao (王文濤) is set to meet this week with both US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪).
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