If you’re a diplomat and even if you’re Secretary of State Marco Rubio, I guess sometimes you have to or think you have to say this kind of thing (Reuters, July 11, 2025):
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday he had “positive and constructive” talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, as the two major powers vied to push their agendas in Asia at a time of tension over Washington’s tariff offensive….
“We’re two big, powerful countries, and there are always going to be issues that we disagree on. I think there’s some areas of potential cooperation and I thought it was a very constructive, positive meeting, and a lot of work to do,” he told reporters….
“We have to build the right atmosphere and build…deliverables, so that a visit isn’t just a visit, but it actually has some takeaways from it that are concrete. But there’s a strong desire on both sides to do it.”
Hey, what do we expect? It’s no surprise. The United States is big and powerful and the People’s Republic of China is big and powerful. Ergo, there will be “issues that we disagree on.” Like freedom versus dictatorship, freedom versus slavery, not always militarily threatening neighboring countries versus always militarily threatening neighboring countries, not hounding dissidents to the ends of the earth versus hounding them to the ends of the earth, not systematically murdering people for their organs versus systematically murdering people for their organs, etc.—all the standard sources of disagreement when one country is big and powerful and the other country is also big and powerful.
One day, this is what we may hear from the U.S. side during the post-meeting-with-China chat with reporters: “What a friggin’ waste of time…”
