Global Courant
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday, concluding a high-stakes visit.
A US State Department official confirmed that Blinken would meet with Xi an hour beforehand at 4:30 p.m. local time. The meeting comes amid escalating tensions between the United States and China, fueling concerns that the two provinces could come into conflict.
“Interactions between states should always be based on mutual respect and sincerity. I hope that through this visit Secretary Blinken can make a positive contribution to stabilizing relations between China and the US,” Xi said in the opening speech to Blinken before their closure . door meeting, according to Chinese state media.
Blinken, America’s top diplomat, arrived in the Chinese capital on Sunday for an official two-day visit to defuse tensions. He is the first US Secretary of State to visit China in five years and the highest-ranking US official to make the trip since President Joe Biden took office. Ahead of his meeting with Xi, Blinken told reporters on Monday that he has had “candid and constructive conversations” with senior Chinese officials so far.
On his first day in Beijing, Blinken met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang for nearly six hours and then both sides said they agreed to continue high-level talks, with Qin accepting an invitation from Blinken to visit Washington, DC. behind closed doors, Qin told Blinken that China-US ties have “reached their lowest point since establishing diplomatic relations” and warned that Taiwan is “the most important issue,” according to Chinese state media.
Earlier Monday, the second and final day of his trip, Blinken met with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, for about three hours. At the meeting, Blinken “underlined the importance of responsibly managing competition” between the two countries “through open communication channels to ensure that competition does not turn into conflict,” the US State Department said. Blinken also “reiterated that the United States will continue to use diplomacy to raise concerns and champion the interests and values of the American people,” the State Department said.
Meanwhile, Wang told Blinken that his visit to Beijing “comes at a critical time” in the relationship between their two countries and that “it is necessary to make a choice between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict,” the Chinese government said. state media. He blamed the deteriorating relations on Washington’s “misperception” of Beijing, which he said “leads to wrong policies toward China.”
Wang made it clear that the “key” to getting along rests on US policy. Like Qin, he also drew a red line around Taiwan, telling Blinken that there is “no room for compromise and concessions” on the issue, according to Chinese state media.
The Taiwan issue is part of a long list of disagreements between Beijing and Washington, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Chinese military’s growing assertiveness in the hotly contested Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, and human rights abuses in China and semi-autonomous Hong Kong.
Taiwan is a self-governing island off the coast of China that separated from the mainland in 1949. Beijing claims Taiwan as its territory and Xi, who has been in power for more than a decade, has made it clear that he wants to reunite China with Taiwan.
The US government has a “One China Policy” that recognizes the people of mainland China and Taiwan as part of “One China”, considers Beijing to be China’s sole legal government, and does not support an independent Taiwan, but considers the issue as “unresolved”. Washington also supports the island militarily and maintains extensive commercial and unofficial ties.
Last October, during a sit-down interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, Blinken said he thinks Xi will speed up the reunification process between China and Taiwan “possibly by any means necessary — through coercion and pressure and possibly, if necessary, force. “
“We are determined to do everything we can … to ensure that Taiwan has the ability to effectively defend itself against aggression,” Blinken said at the time. “We have also made it very clear to China that we expect these differences to be resolved peacefully.”
ABC News’ Chad Murray and Matt Rivers contributed to this report.
