Global Courant
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Beijing for his first visit to China in nearly five years.
Blinken’s two-day trip comes amid frosty bilateral ties and follows the discovery of a suspected spy balloon over the US in February that led him to postpone a trip that was scheduled for the same month.
With the world’s two largest economies at odds on issues ranging from trade to technology and regional security, both China and the US have expressed hope for improved communications, though downplaying expectations of a significant breakthrough.
US President Joe Biden downplayed the balloon delivery while Blinken was on his way to China, saying, “I don’t think leadership knew where it was and knew what was in it and knew what was going on.”
“I think it was more embarrassing than intentional,” Biden told reporters on Saturday.
Biden said he hoped to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping again after a protracted meeting in November on the sidelines of a Group of 20 (G20) summit in Bali, where the two agreed on Blinken’s visit.
“I hope to meet with Xi again in the coming months and talk about legitimate differences we have, but also how we get along,” Biden said.
The two leaders are likely to attend the next G20 summit, in September in New Delhi, and Xi has been invited to travel to San Francisco in November when the US hosts leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group.
Blinken is expected to meet with top Chinese officials and attend a banquet at the state guest house in Diaoyutai Gardens.
A phone call between Blinken and his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang underlined heightened tension between the two sides, with China’s foreign minister emphasizing that the US should recognize Beijing’s “key concerns” such as Taiwan. China’s top diplomat also said the US should “stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and stop harming China’s sovereignty, security and development interests in the name of competition.”
Ties between Beijing and Washington have deteriorated across the board, raising the specter that the two may one day clash militarily over the self-governing island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own.
They also disagree on issues such as trade, US efforts to hold back China’s semiconductor industry, and Beijing’s human rights record.
Particularly troubling for China’s neighbors is the reluctance to engage in regular military-to-military consultations with Washington, despite repeated attempts at dialogue from the US.
At a press conference on Friday before leaving for Beijing, Blinken said his trip had three main goals: to establish crisis management mechanisms, promote the interests of the US and allies, speak directly about related concerns and explore possible areas of cooperation . .
“If we want to make sure, as we do, that the competition we have with China doesn’t turn into conflict, then you have to start communicating,” Blinken said.
The US has also kept its allies close by, with Blinken speaking by phone to his counterparts from Japan and South Korea during his 20-hour journey across the Pacific.
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, also traveled to Tokyo for separate three-way meetings involving Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.
In recent months, the US has agreed to deploy troops in southern Japan and the northern Philippines, both strategically close to Taiwan.
Before departing, Blinken also met in Washington with his counterpart Singapore, a US ally, who expressed hope that the US would remain as a power but also find ways to coexist with a rising China.
Blinken’s “journey is essential, but not enough,” said Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.
“There are fundamental differences in vision, in values. And it takes time to build in mutual respect and strategic trust.”
Blinken is the first top US diplomat to visit Beijing since a 2018 halt by his predecessor Mike Pompeo, who later advocated an unrestricted confrontation with China in the final years of Donald Trump’s presidency.
(TagsToTranslate)Economics
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