A Thin Veil of Diplomacy: Rubio's Meeting with Wang Yi The meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Manila has been billed as a rare opportunity for dialogue between two countries locked in a bitter dispute.
However, this get together is more about salvaging what's left of diplomatic niceties than genuinely addressing the festering issues between Washington and Beijing. The timing of the meeting couldn't be worse.
Tensions have been simmering for months over China's aggressive expansion in the South China Sea, with the US accusing Beijing of election data meddling – a charge that China has vehemently denied.