US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday started two days of high-stakes diplomatic talks in Beijing aimed at trying to cool exploding US-China tensions that have set many around the world on edge.
Blinken opened his program by meeting Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang (秦剛) for an extended discussion to be followed by a working dinner.
He is to have additional talks with Qin, as well as Chinese Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Wang Yi (王毅) and possibly Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) today.
Photo: AFP
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, prospects for any significant breakthroughs are slim, as animosity and recriminations have steadily escalated over a series of disagreements that have implications for global security and stability.
Blinken is the highest-level US official to visit China since US President Joe Biden took office and the first secretary of state to make the trip in five years.
Biden and Xi agreed to Blinken’s trip early at a meeting last year in Bali, Indonesia. It came within a day of happening in February, but was delayed by the diplomatic and political tumult brought on by the discovery of what the US says was a Chinese spy balloon flying across the US that was shot down.
Biden on Saturday played down the balloon episode as Blinken was heading to China.
“I don’t think the leadership knew where it was and knew what was in it and knew what was going on,” he told reporters.
“I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional,” he added.
Biden said he hoped to again meet Xi after their lengthy and strikingly cordial meeting in Bali.
“I’m hoping that, over the next several months, I’ll be meeting with Xi again and talking about legitimate differences we have, but also how there’s areas we can get along,” Biden said.
The list of disagreements and potential conflict points is long, ranging 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.
Xi offered a hint of a possible willingness to reduce tensions, saying in a meeting with Microsoft Corp cofounder Bill Gates on Friday that the US and China can cooperate to “benefit our two countries.”
“I believe that the foundation of Sino-US relations lies in the people,” Xi told Gates. “Under the current world situation, we can carry out various activities that benefit our two countries, the people of our countries, and the entire human race.”
Additional reporting by AFP
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