Blinken met with Chinese President Xi in a bid to ease US-China tensions World news

Beijing: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday as he wrapped up a two-day high-level visit to Beijing aimed at easing tensions between the two countries.

The meeting at the Great Hall of the People was expected and was seen as the key to the success of the march, but a group did not confirm that it would happen until a state official announced it an hour before.

In footage of the meeting released by state broadcaster CCTV, Xi was heard to say “Both sides have agreed to follow through on the common understandings that President Biden and I have reached in Bali.”

In previous meetings between Blinken and senior Chinese officials, both sides expressed a willingness to talk but showed little inclination to push from hard positions on disputes ranging from trade, to Taiwan, to human rights issues. in China and Hong Kong, to China’s military presence in the South China Sea, to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Xi said the two sides had made progress and reached agreements on “some specific issues” without elaborating. “This is very good,” Xi said. “I hope that through this visit, Mr. Secretary, you will make more positive contributions to the strengthening of China-US relations,” Xi added.

Despite Blinken’s presence in China, he and other US officials have played down expectations for any major breakthroughs on the most vexing issues facing the world’s two largest economies.

Instead, these officials have emphasized the importance of both countries establishing and maintaining better lines of communication.

Blinken is the highest-ranking US 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 launch new visits by US and Chinese officials, possibly including a meeting between Xi and Biden in the coming months.

Blinken met Wang Yi

Blinken met earlier on Monday with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi for about three hours, according to a US official.

China’s Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement that Blinken’s visit “coincides with a critical period in China-US relations, and it is necessary to make a choice between dialogue or conflict, cooperation or conflict,” he said. blamed “the US side’s misperception of China, leading to wrong policies towards China” for the current “low point” in relations.

He said that the US has a responsibility to stop “the downward spiral of China-US relations to push them back to a healthy and stable path” and that Wang has “demanded that the US stop promoting the “China threat theory”, put the law on it. sanctions against China, abandoning China’s technological development, and refraining from arbitrary interference in China’s internal affairs.”

The state department said Blinken “pursues the importance of managing anticipated competition between the United States and the PRC through open channels of communication to ensure that competition does not escalate into conflict.”

In the first round of talks on Sunday, Blinken met for six hours with Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang after which the two countries said they had agreed to continue high-level talks. However, there is no sign that any of the most fractious issues between them are close to resolution.

Both sides said Qin had accepted an invitation from Blinken to visit Washington but Beijing made it clear that “China-US relations are at their lowest point since its establishment.” That sentiment is widely shared by US officials.

Blinken’s visit comes after his initial plans to travel to China were postponed in February after the shooting down of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the US.

A snub by the Chinese leadership would have been a major setback to the effort to restore and maintain high-level communications.

Biden and Xi have made commitments to increase communication “normally so that we can make sure that we communicate as clearly as possible to avoid possible misunderstandings and miscommunications,” Blinken said before go to Beijing.

And Biden said over the weekend that he hopes to be able to meet with Xi in the coming months to address the plethora of differences that divide them.

In his meetings on Sunday, Blinken also pressed the Chinese to release the identified Americans and to take steps to prevent the production and export of fentanyl derivatives that cause the opioid crisis in the United States.

Xi offered a possible reassurance to reduce tensions on Friday, speaking at a meeting with the founder of Microsoft Corp. Bill Gates said that the United States and China can cooperate to “benefit our two countries”.

Since the cancellation of Blinken’s tour in February, there have been some high-profile compromises. CIA chief William Burns traveled to China in June, while China’s commerce minister traveled to the US. And Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese foreign policy adviser Wang Yi in Vienna in May.

But they have been marked by angry rhetorical arguments from both sides on the Taiwan Strait, their big plans in the Indo-Pacific, China’s refusal to blame Russia for its war on Ukraine, and US accusations from Washington that Beijing is trying to boost it. world powers, including Cuba.

And, earlier this month, China’s defense minister rejected a request from US defense secretary Lloyd Austin for a meeting on the sidelines of a defense conference in Singapore, a sign of continued concern.