US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) walks with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang (right) ahead of a meeting on the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, June 18, 2023.
Leah Millis | AFP | Getty’s paintings
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and top diplomat Wang Yi in Beijing on Sunday as a part of a high-stakes diplomatic mission geared toward cooling US-China tensions which have overshadowed geopolitics in recent months.
Blinken’s trip makes him the highest US official to go to China since Joe Biden became US President and the primary US Secretary of State to make the trip in nearly five years.
Blinken’s original travel plans for February were disrupted by news of an alleged Chinese spy balloon flying over US airspace. The US finally shot down the alleged spy balloon, and tensions between the world’s two largest economies have remained tense ever since. Beijing insisted the balloon was an unnamed weather tracker that had gone off target.
Blinken is scheduled to have a working dinner later Sunday on the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse with Qin, who was previously China’s ambassador to the U.S. Some reports suggest a meeting with President Xi Jinping can also happen on Monday during Blinken’s two-day visit.
Expectations for a significant recovery in US-Chinese relations, especially as a results of Blinken’s departure, remain low. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement last week that Blinken will discuss the importance of keeping lines of communication open and “raise bilateral problems with concern, global and regional issues, and potential cooperation on common transnational challenges.”
On the annual Shangri-La Dialogue event in Singapore earlier this month, the US defense chief and his Chinese counterpart didn’t hold an official meeting. More broadly, international travel restrictions through the Covid-19 pandemic have reduced contact between the US and Chinese governments.
In August, a controversial visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the US House of Representatives, stoked Beijing’s ire. Beijing considers Taiwan to be a part of its territory, with no right to conduct diplomatic relations on its own. The US recognizes Beijing as China’s sole legitimate government, while maintaining unofficial relations with the island, a democratically self-governing region.
Biden’s visit to Beijing could also pave the way in which for a November meeting between Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi – their first since November in Bali, a day before the G-20 summit begins.
In late May, the US Commerce Secretary and her Chinese counterpart met in Washington. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen can be expected to go to China at an unspecified date.
The brand new Chinese ambassador to the US, Xie Feng, arrived within the US at the top of May after a period of about six months with nobody in office. Biden said around the identical time that he expected U.S.-China tensions “to start out melting in a short time.”
A possible opportunity for Biden and Xi to fulfill again shall be in November on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit in San Francisco.
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