US Secretary of State Antony Blinken kicked off two days of high-level diplomatic talks in Beijing on Sunday, aimed toward trying to cool exploding US-China tensions which might be driving many individuals around the world to the brink.
Blinken opened his program with a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang for an prolonged discussion, followed by a working lunch.
On Monday, he’ll hold additional talks with Qin in addition to top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi and possibly President Xi Jinping.
Neither Blinken nor Qin made any substantive comments to reporters as they began the meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.
Despite Blinken’s presence in the Chinese capital, the prospects for any significant breakthrough are slim as already strained ties have develop into increasingly strained in recent times.
Hostility and recriminations proceed to escalate over a series of misunderstandings affecting global security and stability.
Blinken is the top US official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office and the first secretary of state to make the trip in five years.
Biden and Xi had agreed to Blinken’s trip earlier at a meeting last 12 months in Bali.
This happened over the course of a day in February but was delayed by the diplomatic and political turmoil attributable to the discovery of what the US believed was A Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States it was shot down.
The list of misunderstandings and potential points of conflict is long, starting from trade with Taiwan, human rights conditions in China and Hong Kong, to Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Blinken may even press the Chinese to release detained Americans and take steps to limit the production and export of fentanyl precursors which might be fueling the US opioid crisis.
U.S. officials said Blinken would raise each of those points, although neither side showed any inclination to withdraw from their entrenched positions.
Shortly before his departure, Blinken stressed the importance of building and maintaining higher lines of communication between the United States and China.
He told reporters that the US wanted to be sure that “the competition we have now with China doesn’t escalate into conflict” due to avoidable misunderstandings.
Biden and Xi pledged to improve communication “precisely in order that we will be sure we communicate as clearly as possible to avoid possible misunderstandings and misunderstandings,” Blinken said on Friday.
Xi hinted at a possible willingness to ease tensions, saying at a Friday meeting with Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates that the US and China could work together to “profit our two countries.”
“I think that the foundation of Sino-American relations is people,” Xi told Gates. “In the current situation in the world, we will perform various activities that profit our two countries, the people of our countries and the entire human race.”
Biden told White House reporters on Saturday that he “hopes to see Xi again in the next few months and discuss our legitimate differences, but additionally how to … get along.”
Opportunities for such a meeting may come at the Group of 20 Leaders’ Meeting in Latest Delhi in September and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in San Francisco hosted by the United States in November.
Several high-level meetings have been held since Blinken’s trip was canceled in February.
William Burns, head of the CIA went to China in May, while China’s Trade Minister traveled to the U.S. and Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan met Wang in Vienna in May.
But they were punctuated by outbursts of offended rhetoric from either side over the Taiwan Strait, their broader intentions in the Indo-Pacific region, China’s refusal to condemn Russia for his war with Ukraineand US allegations from Washington that Beijing is trying to increase its surveillance capabilities around the world, including in Cuba.
And earlier this month, China’s defense minister declined US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to meet on the sidelines of a security symposium in Singapore, a sign of constant dissatisfaction.
Austin said on Friday he was confident he and his Chinese counterpart would meet “in some unspecified time in the future, but we’re not there yet.”
Highlighting the difficulties, China dismissed a report by a U.S. security company that accused hackers linked to China for attacking a whole lot of public agencies, schools and other targets around the world as “far-fetched and unprofessional”
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman repeated accusations that Washington was carrying out hacking attacks and complained that the cybersecurity industry rarely reported on them.
This followed a similar retort earlier in the week, when China said that Qin, in a phone call with Blinken, urged the US to respect China’s “fundamental concerns,” comparable to Taiwanese self-determination“stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and stop harming China’s sovereignty, security and development interests in the name of competition.”
Meanwhile, the national security advisers of the United States, Japan and the Philippines held their first joint talks on Friday and agreed to strengthen defense cooperation, partially to counter China’s growing influence and ambitions.
This coincides with the Biden administration’s signing of a deal with Australia and the UK to supply the former with nuclear-powered submarines, and China is rapidly looking for to expand its diplomatic presence, especially in the Indian and Pacific Ocean island nations where it has opened or they’ve plans to open a minimum of five recent embassies over the next 12 months.
The deal is a component of an 18-month nuclear partnership, known by the acronym AUKUS – involving Australia, the UK and the US.
Speaking ahead of Blinken’s arrival, the two US officials dismissed hopes for significant progress and stressed that the trip was intended to restore a sense of calm and normality to high-level dealings.
“We come to Beijing with a realistic, confident approach and a sincere desire to manage our competitors in the most responsible manner possible,” said Daniel Kritenbrink, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia and the Pacific.
Kurt Campbell, the top Asian expert at the National Security Council, said that “intense competition requires intense diplomacy if we’re to manage tensions. It’s the only way to clear up misunderstandings, signal, communicate and cooperate where and when our interests converge.”