Blinken and Xi Meet in Beijing, Pledge to Stabilize US-China Relations

Washington and Beijing vowed to stabilize souring relations when Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a key meeting on Monday.

Xi expressed satisfaction with the progress made during the talks in Beijing. But Blinken told the media that China has refused to resume military contacts, which are a priority for the United States.

It remains to be seen whether the two countries can resolve their most important differences, many of which have financial, security and international stability repercussions.

Both sides have expressed an interest in more talks, but there was no indication that either was willing to deviate from their positions on issues including trade, Taiwan, human rights situations in China and Hong Kong, and China’s military assertiveness in the South China Sea. Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Blinken later said that the United States set limited goals for the trip and achieved them. Blinken added that he raised the issue of military communications “repeatedly.”

“It is absolutely essential that we have these kinds of connections,” he said. “This is something we will continue to work on.”

The United States said that since 2021, China has refused or failed to respond to more than a dozen Defense Department requests for high-level dialogues.

According to a transcript from the meeting with Blinken, Xi expressed pleasure with the results of Blinken’s previous meetings with two senior Chinese diplomats and said the two countries agreed to resume the program of understandings he and President Joe Biden agreed upon at a meeting. in Bali last year.

“The Chinese side has made our position clear, and the two sides agreed to follow through on the common understandings that President Biden and I reached in Bali,” Xi said.

That agenda has been imperiled in recent months, particularly after the United States shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon over its airspace in February, and amid heightened military activity in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea. Besides controversies over human rights, trade and opioid production, the list of problem areas is daunting.

But Xi indicated that the worst could be over.

“The two sides also made progress and reached agreement on some specific issues,” Xi said, without elaborating, according to a transcript of the remarks released by the foreign ministry. “This is very good.”

“I hope that through this visit, Mr. Minister, you will make more positive contributions to the stabilization of China-US relations,” Xi added.

In his remarks to Xi during the 35-minute session in the Great Hall of the People, which was not announced until an hour before it began, Blinken said that “the United States and China have an obligation and a responsibility to manage our relationship.”

“The United States is committed to doing that,” Blinken said. “This is in the interest of the United States, in the interest of China, and in the interest of the world.”

Blinken described his previous discussions with senior Chinese officials as “frank and constructive”.

Despite being in China, Blinken and other US officials have played down the prospects of any significant breakthroughs on the most troubling issues facing the planet’s two largest economies.

Instead, these officials stressed the importance of the two 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 usher in a new round of visits by senior US and Chinese officials, possibly including a meeting between Xi and Biden in the coming months.

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

China’s foreign ministry wrote in a statement that Blinken’s visit “coincides with a critical juncture in Sino-US relations, and it is necessary to choose between dialogue, confrontation, cooperation or conflict,” blaming the “misperception of the US side.” China, resulting in incorrect policies towards China” due to the current “low point” in relations.

It said the United States had a responsibility to stop the “escalating deterioration of China-US relations to push it to a healthy and stable track” and that Wang “demanded the United States to stop amplifying the ‘China threat theory’, lift illegal unilateral sanctions against China, and abandon suppression of technological development Chinese, refrain from arbitrary interference in China’s internal affairs.”

The State Department said Blinken “emphasized the importance of responsible management of competition between the United States and the People’s Republic of China through open channels of communication to ensure that competition does not degenerate into conflict,” using the PRC acronym.

In the first round of talks on Sunday, Blinken met for about six hours with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, after which the two countries said they agreed to continue high-level discussions. However, there was no indication that any of the most complex issues between them were any closer to being resolved.

Both the United States and China said Chen had accepted an invitation from Blinken to visit Washington, but Beijing made it clear that “China-US relations are at the lowest level since their establishment.” American officials broadly share this sentiment.

Blinken’s visit comes after his initial plans to travel to China in February were delayed after a Chinese observation balloon was shot down over the United States.

Disdain for the Chinese leader would have been a major setback for efforts to restore and maintain contacts at higher levels.

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

In his Sunday meetings, Blinken also pressed the Chinese to release detained US citizens and take steps to limit the production and export of fentanyl precursors that are fueling the US opioid crisis.

Xi offered a hint about a possible willingness to reduce tensions on Friday, saying in a meeting with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates that the United States and China could cooperate for the “benefit of our two countries.”

Since canceling Blinken’s trip in February, there have been some high-profile engagements. CIA chief William Burns traveled to China in May, while China’s commerce minister traveled to the US, and Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with top Chinese foreign policy adviser Wang Yi in Vienna in May.

But it was punctuated by bursts of angry rhetoric from both countries over the Taiwan Strait, their broader intentions in the Indo-Pacific, China’s refusal to condemn Russia for its war against Ukraine, and US allegations from Washington that Beijing is trying to bolster its position. Surveillance capabilities around the world, including in Cuba.

And earlier this month, China’s defense minister turned down a request from US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to hold a meeting on the sidelines of a security seminar in Singapore, in a sign of continued discontent.