That a meeting between Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken took place on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, after the latter called off a trip to Beijing at the last minute, shows the significance both sides attach to communication at a trying moment for bilateral ties.

Despite this, their meeting only served to expose how difficult it is for the two sides to have any meaningful discussions because of the ignorance and prejudice of the US regarding China, which have reached an almost absurd degree.

It is that ignorance and prejudice that prompted the US' overreaction to the Chinese meteorological balloon that was inadvertently blown into US airspace. And it is that ignorance and prejudice that has resulted in, and enabled, some US politicians to whip up anti-China sentiment on the back of the balloon incident.

It is that ignorance and prejudice that has fueled the US' paranoia about China's development and the US' increasingly hysterical response, which consists of an ideological war, chip war, trade war, the striving for economic decoupling, military coercion, geopolitical containment and international isolation.

The US administration no longer bases its decision-making regarding China on the merits of a matter but instead on its distorted and poisoned views on China.

That's why Blinken chose to waste the valuable in-person meeting hypocritically trying to lecture his Chinese counterpart on sovereignty and territorial integrity, something the US feels no qualms about infringing upon when the sovereignty and territorial integrity concerned is that of other countries.

In its efforts to promote world peace and development, China regards all countries as equal and it recognizes that achieving those goals requires the joint efforts of all.

The US, on the other hand, regards itself as above and beyond others. Wang gave a patient explanation of meteorological balloons, a basic component of the modern meteorological monitoring system. Yet, absurdly, Blinken later told the media after their meeting that Wang offered "no apology" for the balloon incident, showing the extent to which Washington lives in a cocoon of its own false perceptions and narratives.

If a blown-off-course weather balloon requires an "apology", then what does the US side have to offer for the ugly roles it has been playing in hindering the peaceful reunification of Taiwan with the motherland and its attempts to foster unrest in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet?

There is no doubt that Wang's advice that the US should "change course, acknowledge and repair the damage that its excessive use of force (in shooting down the balloon) has caused to China-US relations" has fallen on deaf ears again. Unless the US develops a rational view of China, and of itself, as being but one country among many, the exchanges between the two sides may continue to be wasted opportunities.