Blinken

Top US diplomat meets China’s FM in Beijing during the highest-level official visit in five years

According to the US Department of State, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing for “candid, substantial, and fruitful” talks.

As the two giants attempt to normalise tense relations, Sunday’s talks marked the beginning of the highest-level tour by a US official to China in almost five years.

According to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, “The secretary emphasised the importance of diplomacy and having open channels of communication across the whole range of topics to prevent the danger of misperception and miscalculation.”

According to official media, Qin told Blinken that China is dedicated to establishing a “stable, predictable, and productive” relationship with the United States.

He also expressed China’s concerns about its fundamental interests, such as Taiwan, calling it the “most notable risk” in Sino-US relations, it said.

Before the talks, US officials believed there was little chance of a resolution to the numerous differences between the two largest economies in the world, including trade, US efforts to impede China’s semiconductor industry, Taiwan’s status as a self-governing territory, and Beijing’s human rights record.

Miller stated that the secretary “raised a number of areas of concern” and “opportunity to pursue cooperation on shared transnational concerns… where our interests are aligned.”

“To further the conversations, Blinken offered Qin to visit Washington, DC, and they agreed to organise a reciprocal visit at a mutually convenient time,” he stated.

The top American diplomat’s two-day travel comes amid tense bilateral relations and comes after he postponed the trip that was set to take place in the same month after discovering a suspected spy balloon above the US in February.

Both China and the US have expressed cautious optimism for better communication despite their differences on a range of topics, including trade, technology, and regional security.

“Diplomacy is sorely needed right now, and Antony Blinken’s visit is a good thing. Yet, I don’t believe that it will cause a significant thawing in ties, O’Connor said Arab news

Blinken, the highest-ranking American official to visit China since President Joe Biden entered office, will meet with Chinese officials on Monday at a higher level, possibly with Xi Jinping.

China’s refusal to regularly hold military-to-military discussions with Washington, despite numerous US requests to initiate communication, has particularly alarmed China’s neighbours.

Blinken explained his trip’s major goals in a news briefing on Friday, the day before he left for Beijing: establishing crisis management systems, advancing US and allied interests, including raising relevant issues directly, and looking into potential areas of cooperation.

The place to start with communication, according to Blinken, is “if we want to make sure, as we do, that the competitiveness that we have with China doesn’t veer into confrontation.”

The US has also maintained good ties with its allies; during Blinken’s 20-hour voyage across the Pacific, he spoke on the phone with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts.

The US has recently established agreements for troop deployments in the northern and southern Philippines, both of which are strategically near to Taiwan.

Since Mike Pompeo’s visit to Beijing in 2018, who later advocated for no-holds-barred conflict with China in the closing years of Donald Trump’s US presidency, Blinken is the highest-ranking US official to travel to Beijing.

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