Global Courant
BEIJING — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at 4:30 p.m. Monday, the State Department said, as the top US diplomat concluded a two-day visit to Beijing to ease rising tensions.
A Blinken-Xi meeting had been expected, but neither side had confirmed it would take place just an hour before talks, which are seen as key to the trip’s success. A disapproval from the Chinese leader would have been a major setback to efforts to restore and maintain communications at higher levels.
Blinken is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office, and the first Secretary of State to make the trip in five years. His visit is expected to herald another round of visits from senior US and Chinese officials, possibly including a meeting between Xi and Biden in the coming months.
The meeting with Xi comes on the second and second and final day of Blinken’s critical meetings with senior Chinese officials. The two sides have so far shown a willingness to talk, but have shown little inclination to bow to hardened positions that have fueled tensions.
Blinken met with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi for about three hours earlier Monday, a US official said.
Neither Blinken nor Wang made any comments to reporters as they greeted each other and sat down for their discussion.
China’s foreign ministry wrote in a statement that Blinken’s visit “coincides with a critical moment in China-US relations, and that it is necessary to make a choice between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict.” “, and blamed the “erroneous perception of the American side”. of China, leading to wrong policies towards China” for the current “nadir” in relations.
It said the US had a responsibility to “halt the spiraling decline of China-US relations to return it to a healthy and stable track” and that Wang had “demanded that the US stop extolling the ‘China Threat Theory’, illegal unilateral sanctions against China, refraining from suppressing China’s technological development and refraining from arbitrary interference in China’s internal affairs.”
Despite Blinken’s presence in China, he and other US officials had downplayed the prospects of major breakthroughs on the most vexing issues facing the planet’s two largest economies.
Instead, these officials have stressed the importance of establishing and maintaining better lines of communication between the two countries.
The State Department said Blinken “underscored the importance of responsibly managing competition between the United States and the People’s Republic of China through open communication channels to ensure that competition does not turn into conflict.”
In the first round of talks on Sunday, Blinken had a nearly six-hour meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, after which both countries said they had agreed to continue high-level talks. However, there was no sign that one of the most vexing issues between them was any closer to a resolution.
The two sides both said that Qin had accepted an invitation from Blinken to visit Washington, but Beijing clarified that “the relationship between China and the US is at its nadir since its establishment.” That sentiment is widely shared by US officials.
Blinken is the highest-ranking US official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office and his two-day trip comes after his initial plans to travel to China were postponed in February following the shooting down of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the US.
Biden and Xi had made commitments to improve communications “precisely so that we can make sure we communicate as clearly as possible to avoid any potential misunderstandings and miscommunication,” Blinken said before leaving for Beijing.
His talks could pave the way for a meeting between Biden and Xi in the coming months. Biden said on Saturday he hopes to meet with Xi in the coming months to address the plethora of disagreements that divide them.
That long list includes disagreements ranging from trade to Taiwan, human rights situations in China and Hong Kong to Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
At his rallies on Sunday, Blinken also urged the Chinese to release detained US citizens and take steps to curb the production and export of fentanyl precursors fueling the United States’ opioid crisis.
Xi offered a hint of a possible willingness to ease tensions on Friday, saying during a meeting with co-founder of Microsoft Corp. Bill Gates that the United States and China can work together to “benefit our two countries”.
Since the cancellation of Blinken’s trip in February, there have been some high-level appointments. CIA Chief William Burns traveled to China in May, while China’s Commerce Secretary traveled to the US. Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Wang Yi in Vienna in May.
But those were punctuated by bursts of angry rhetoric from both sides about the Taiwan Strait, their broader intentions in the Indo-Pacific, China’s refusal to condemn Russia for its war on Ukraine, and US accusations from Washington that Beijing is trying to global surveillance capabilities, including in Cuba.
And earlier this month, China’s defense minister turned down a request from US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for a meeting on the sidelines of a security symposium in Singapore, a sign of continued discontent.
Meanwhile, the national security advisers of the United States, Japan and the Philippines held their first joint talks last week and agreed to strengthen their defense cooperation, including to counter China’s growing influence and ambitions.
This coincides with the Biden administration reaching an agreement with Australia and Britain to provide the first with nuclear-powered submarines, with China rapidly expanding its diplomatic presence, especially in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific island nations, where it has opened or opened its doors. plans to open at least five new embassies in the coming year.
The agreement is part of an 18-month-old nuclear partnership called AUKUS – for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
