GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON #165
It was a verbal lashing. China’s top diplomat threw off the restraints after US Sec of State Blinken had laid into China in his opening. US democracy fumbled Covid-19. Chinese democracy didn’t. It set the scene + the tone for the two-day meeting. The US knows it is in a fight. They will have long re-think. Blinken/Sullivan was brought up sharp.
After the meeting, China posted two photos showing the high point of humiliation suffered by China in 1901 + imposed under the Unfair Treaties by Western Powers. The message could not be clearer. Never Again will China be bullied. Blinken will have got the message.
Anchorage will come to mean something significant. A word to describe an event that made clear there is a new balance of power. It is all in the two photos and includes a warning to Japan in particular. 120 years ago Japan joined the Western countries in China’s humiliation. The message – Don’t.
