- Anthony Blinken has been visiting China in effort to improve strained ties
By RACHAEL BUNYAN and AFP
PUBLISHED: 03:00 EDT, 19 June 2023 | UPDATED: 07:15 EDT, 19 June 2023
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing today after China warned Washington it must choose between ‘cooperation or conflict’ and said there is ‘no room to compromise’ on Taiwan.
Blinken’s meeting with Xi at the Great Hall of the People marked the highest-level visit by a US official to Beijing in nearly five years.
During the meeting, Xi told Blinken he hoped his visit would make a ‘positive contribution’ in improving ties between Beijing and Washington, state broadcaster CGTN reported.
‘State-to-state interactions should always be based on mutual respect and sincerity. I hope that Secretary Blinken, through this visit, could make a positive contribution to stabilizing China-US relations,’ Xi said as he hailed ‘progress’ during the talks.
Xi told Blinken the world needs a stable China-US relationship, adding: ‘China respects US interests and does not seek to challenge or displace the United States’.
Chinese President Xi Jinping holds meeting with Antony Blinken
The meeting between Xi and Blinken had been expected and was seen as key to the success of the trip, but neither side confirmed it would happen until a State Department official announced it just an hour beforehand.
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A snub by the Chinese leader would have been a major setback to the effort to restore and maintain communications at senior levels. In earlier meetings between Blinken and senior Chinese officials, the two sides expressed willingness to talk but showed little inclination to bend on hardened positions.
Earlier today, Blinken spoke with Wang Yi, China’s highest-ranking foreign policy official, for three hours at the ornate state guesthouse in the ancient Diaoyutai gardens, according to a State Department official.
‘The Secretary of State’s trip to Beijing this time comes at a critical juncture in China-US relations,’ Wang told Blinken, according to a readout from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
‘It is necessary to make a choice between dialogue and confrontation, cooperation or conflict,’ he said.
‘We must reverse the downward spiral of China-US relations, push for a return to a healthy and stable track, and work together to find a correct way for China and the United States to get along,’ Wang added.
Wang urged the United States to stop speculating on threats from China, abandon its ‘suppression’ of China’s scientific and technological development, and refrain from interfering in its internal affairs, according to Chinese state media.
On the issue of Taiwan, the democratic island Beijing claims as it own, Wang said ‘China has no room for compromise or concessions’, according to the Chinese readout.
In the past year, China has launched live-fire military drills twice near the island in anger over actions by top US lawmakers.
‘The United States must truly adhere to the One China principle confirmed in the three joint US-China communiques, respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and clearly oppose ‘Taiwan independence’.’
Ahead of their meeting, Blinken and Wang offered polite smiles before the cameras and exchanged pleasantries.
They then headed into a meeting with their aides, who unlike their bosses wore masks in line with Covid-19 protocols.
Tensions have soared between the world’s two largest economies in recent years on issues ranging from trade to technology to Taiwan.
US officials say that they did not expect major breakthroughs from Blinken’s talks but they hope to reopen regular lines of communication to prevent mishaps from escalating into conflict.
Blinken is the highest-level American official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office and his two-day trip comes after his initial plans to travel to China were postponed in February after the shootdown of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the U.S.
Both countries said Sunday that Qin accepted an offer to pay a return visit to Washington at a later date.
On Sunday, Blinken met for seven and a half hours with Foreign Minister Qin Gang – longer than expected – with the two sides agreeing to keep up communication.
Antony Blinken meets with Foreign Minister of China Qin Gang
The talks with Qin were ‘candid, substantive and constructive’, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
Blinken stressed ‘the importance of diplomacy and maintaining open channels of communication across the full range of issues to reduce the risk of misperception and miscalculation’, Miller added.
Behind closed doors, Qin told Blinken that relations between the United States and China ‘are at the lowest point since the establishment of diplomatic relations’, according to CCTV.
‘This does not conform to the fundamental interests of the two peoples, nor does it meet the common expectations of the international community,’ Qin said during the talks.
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the discussions went beyond the usual talking points.
‘This was a real conversation,’ he said.
In his meetings on Sunday, Blinken also pressed the Chinese to release detained American citizens and to take steps to curb the production and export of fentanyl precursors that are fueling the opioid crisis in the United States.
Since the cancellation of Blinken’s trip in February, there have been some high-level engagements. CIA chief William Burns traveled to China in May, while China’s commerce minister traveled to the U.S. And Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Wang Yi in Vienna in May.
But those have been punctuated by bursts of angry rhetoric from both sides over the Taiwan Strait, their broader intentions in the Indo-Pacific, China’s refusal to condemn Russia for its war against Ukraine, and U.S. allegations from Washington that Beijing is attempting to boost its worldwide surveillance capabilities, including in Cuba.
And, earlier this month, China’s defense minister rebuffed a request from U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for a meeting on the sidelines of a security symposium in Singapore, a sign of continuing discontent.
Meanwhile, the national security advisers of the United States, Japan and the Philippines held their first joint talks last week and agreed to strengthen their defense cooperation, in part to counter China’s growing influence and ambitions.
This coincides with the Biden administration inking an agreement with Australia and Britain to provide the first with nuclear-powered submarines, with China moving rapidly to expand its diplomatic presence, especially in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific island nations, where it has opened or has plans to open at least five new embassies over the next year.
The agreement is part of an 18-month-old nuclear partnership given the acronym AUKUS – for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.