US secretary of state Antony Blinken will meet with Chinese president Xi Jinping on Monday as America’s top diplomat wrapped up a two-day visit to Beijing aimed at easing soaring tensions.
A Blinken-Xi meeting had been expected, but neither side had confirmed it would happen until about an hour before the talks, which are seen as key to the success of the trip.
A snub by the Chinese leader would have been a major setback to the effort restore and maintain communications at senior levels.
Continuing important face to face diplomacy in Beijing, I met today with Central Foreign Affairs Office Director Wang Yi for discussions on a range of bilateral and global issues that affect people at home and around the world. pic.twitter.com/yXYcfU0Go1
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) June 19, 2023
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Mr Blinken is the highest-level US official to visit China since US president Joe Biden took office, and the first secretary of state to make the trip in five years.
His visit is expected to usher in a new round of visits by senior US and Chinese officials, possibly including a meeting between Mr Xi and Mr Biden in the coming months.
The encounter with Mr Xi comes on the second and second and final day of Mr Blinken’s critical meetings with senior Chinese officials.
The two sides have thus far expressed willingness to talk but have showed little inclination to alter positions that have sent tensions soaring.
Mr Blinken met earlier on Monday with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi for about three hours, according to a US official.
Neither Mr Blinken nor Mr Wang made any comment to reporters as they greeted each other and sat for their discussion.
China’s ministry of foreign affairs said Mr Blinken’s visit “coincides with a critical juncture in China-US relations, and it is necessary to make a choice between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict”, and blamed the “US side’s erroneous perception of China, leading to incorrect policies towards China” for the current “low point” in relations.
It said America had a responsibility to halt “the spiralling decline of China-US relations to push it back to a healthy and stable track” and that Wang had “demanded that the US stop hyping up the ‘China threat theory’, lift illegal unilateral sanctions against China, abandon suppression of China’s technological development, and refrain from arbitrary interference in China’s internal affairs”.
Despite Mr Blinken’s presence in China, he and other US officials had played down the prospects of any significant breakthroughs on the most vexing issues facing the planet’s two largest economies.
Instead, these officials have emphasised the importance of the two countries establishing and maintaining better lines of communication.
Today, I met with People’s Republic of China State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing and discussed how we can responsibly manage the relationship between our two countries through open channels of communication. pic.twitter.com/dPkd0aWQ5J
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) June 18, 2023
Mr Blinken's two-day trip comes after his initial plans to travel to China were postponed in February after a Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down over the US.
Mr Biden and Mr Xi had made commitments to improve communications “precisely so that we can make sure we are communicating as clearly as possible to avoid possible misunderstandings and miscommunications”, Mr Blinken said before leaving for Beijing.
His talks could pave the way for a meeting in the coming months between the two leaders. Mr Biden said on Saturday that he hoped to be able to meet with Mr Xi in the coming months to take up the plethora of differences that divide them.
That long list incudes disagreements ranging from trade to Taiwan, human rights conditions in China and Hong Kong to Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In his meetings on Sunday, Mr Blinken also pressed the Chinese to release detained American citizens and to take steps to curb the production and export of fentanyl precursors that are fuelling the opioid crisis in the United States.
Mr Xi offered a hint of a possible willingness to reduce tensions on Friday, saying in a meeting with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates that the United States and China can cooperate to “benefit our two countries”.
