Blinken And Xi Agreed To “stabilize” Deteriorating US-China Relations After Meeting

(CTN NEWS) – As both sides agreed that it was necessary to “stabilize” the bilateral relationship between the two countries.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on Monday that the US and China had made “progress” towards getting their relationship back on track.

There are significant issues between the countries that have not been resolved, but the top US diplomat noted that he “hopes and expects we will have better communications, better engagement going forward” after two days of meetings with senior officials in Beijing, including President Xi Jinping.

As the first US secretary of state to visit Beijing in five years.

Blinken’s discussions with senior Chinese officials were viewed as a crucial litmus test for whether the two governments could prevent relations from further deteriorating at a time of persistent mistrust.

Both sides Recognize The Importance Of Stabilizing Their Relationship

At a news conference on Monday in the Chinese capital, Blinken stated, “It was clear coming in that the relationship was at a point of instability.” And both sides agreed that efforts to stabilise it were necessary.

“I came to Beijing to strengthen high-level channels of communication, to make our positions and intentions clear in areas of disagreement.

And to explore areas where we might work together on our interests, align on shared transnational challenges, and we did all that,” Blinken said.

We won’t always reach an agreement between us, he remarked, but we have made progress and are moving forward in a number of areas under the conditions we set for this trip.

“However, I want to emphasise once more that none of this is settled in a single visit, one outing, or one talk. According to the top US diplomat, it’s a process.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday that President Joe Biden was “closely monitoring” Blinken’s travel and that the US president was “updated regularly” by his national security team.

Military-to-military Communications Have Not Progressed Immediately

Restoring military-to-military communications between the US and China was one of the major challenges that was left unresolved.

The nation’s top military leaders continue to have no contact with one another, and two recent events have sparked worries that their tense relationship may break down into violence.

Despite speaking briefly, China recently declined a meeting between Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and the country’s sanctioned Defence Minister Li Shangfu in Singapore.

Despite “repeatedly” bringing up the necessity for such channels of communication in his talks, Blinken claimed there had been “no immediate progress.”

“China has not yet indicated that it is willing to go with it. We need to continue addressing that problem, in my opinion. It is crucial that we open those lines again, he said.

On Monday, Yang Tao, director-general of the North American and Oceanian Affairs division of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, attributed the protracted standoff to Li’s exposure to sanctions.

He told reporters, “The US needs to remove the barrier first.”

Top U.S. Diplomats Discuss Economic Issues

The top US diplomat said that the topics of their conversations included North Korea and the conflict in Ukraine.

He also said that they discussed concerns that the US had “shared by a growing number of countries about the (People’s Republic of China’s) provocative actions to the Taiwan Strait, as well as in the South and East China Seas.” In addition to pressing China on human rights, he claimed that the US position on Taiwan had not changed.

The top US ambassador also repeatedly emphasised that, when meeting with senior Chinese officials, he tried to make clear the US’ economic policy towards China and stress that it is not the US’ intention to “contain” China economically.

Between “de-risking” and “decoupling,” he argued, “there is a profound difference for the United States, and for many other countries.”

“We support diversification and risk reduction. That entails making investments in our own capabilities and secure, robust supply chains.

Promoting equal opportunity for our employees and our businesses, combating unfair trade practises, and safeguarding our vital technology so that they aren’t turned against us, according to him.

Yang, however, disagreed, telling reporters that if the US is just repackaging “decoupling” as “de-risking” from China, the approach is “turning away from stability and opportunity.”

“We have not seen any evidence that contradicts that,” Blinken said, adding that China had guaranteed the US and other nations that it would not give Russia deadly assistance.

He also pointed out that China’s assurance was consistent with other remarks it had made in recent weeks.

“However, we continue to be concerned about Chinese businesses, which may be supplying Russia with technology to further its aggression in Ukraine. And we’ve urged the Chinese authorities to watch out for that, said Blinken.

Blinken claimed that he brought up issues related to human rights, such as those in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, in his encounters. He added that he “specifically raised US citizens wrongfully detained and those facing exit bans.”

According to the top US diplomat, the two sides “agreed to explore setting up a working group effort so that we can shut off the flow of precursor chemicals” for fentanyl.

This was one of the areas of prospective cooperation. One of the leading producers of the precursor chemicals needed to make the extremely lethal synthetic drug that has killed thousands of people is China.

Meeting Between Blinken And Xi Ends Days Of Uncertainty

The top US ambassador called his discussions with senior Chinese officials Wang Yi and Qin Gang “candid, substantive, and constructive,” and he called his meeting with the Chinese president “important.”

The tense US-China ties were further underscored by the fact that Xi and Blinken’s meeting was not officially announced until just before it took place and if they would meet during the two-day visit.

Washington would have viewed the lack of a face-to-face encounter as an insult and a break from the numerous prior trips by senior American diplomats.

The US only made the public announcement of the meeting an hour or so before it began, and it took place in Beijing’s vast Great Hall of the People.

According to a State Department representative, it lasted around 30 minutes, starting at 4:34 p.m. local time and ending at 5:09 p.m.

According to a Chinese account of the conversation, Xi told Blinken that the world needs an all-around solid Sino-US relationship and that the future and destiny of humanity depend on how well China and the United States get along.

China will not challenge or take the place of the United States because it respects American interests.

Similar to how China must be respected, the United States must similarly uphold China’s legitimate rights and interests, said Xi.

According to the readout, Xi informed Blinken that the future of humanity depends on China and the US having healthy relations.

The two superpowers have been at odds more and more recently over a variety of problems, from Beijing’s tight ties to Moscow to American attempts to restrict the sale of cutting-edge technologies to China.

Relationships between the two countries reached a new low earlier this year as a result of a Chinese spy balloon that was discovered flying across the US and passing over critical military locations before being shot down by an American fighter plane.

As a result, Blinken cancelled a previous trip to Beijing.

The diplomatic mission succeeded this time around.

China Blames The United States For Its Declining Relations

An approximately three-hour conversation between Blinken and Wang earlier on Monday highlighted the significant difficulties in resolving the tension and mistrust that have come to define the relationship.

The US has recently been forced to reevaluate how it maintains its interactions with the power as a result of the Chinese government’s expanding influence worldwide and increasingly authoritarian rules at home.

According to a readout from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, Wang reiterated Beijing’s standard rhetoric and demanded that the US stop “suppressing” China’s technological advancement and exaggerating the “China threat” as the “root cause” of the two countries’ deteriorating relations.

Blinken’s visit occurred at “a critical juncture in US-China relations, where a choice needs to be made between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict,” Wang said.

“We must reverse the downward spiral of China-US relations, promote a return to a healthy and stable track, and jointly find the right way for China and the United States to co-exist in the new era.”

Wang emphasised once more that Taiwan is one of China’s “core interests” and that there is “no room for compromise or backdown” in this regard. balloon

The self-governing democratic island, which China’s Communist Party claims but has never taken control of, has grown to be yet another cause of contention between the two countries

Despite Their ‘profound differences,’ Both Sides Agree To Advance Dialogue

The overall tone of Wang’s remarks was more confrontational than that of Qin, the Chinese foreign minister, who had met with Blinken the day before.

According to a readout from Beijing, Qin stated that both parties had agreed to “advance dialogue, exchanges, and cooperation” and “maintain high-level interactions.”

Blinken and Qin’s lengthy, over five-hour discussion on Sunday was successful “on a number of fronts,” with both parties demonstrating a “desire to reduce tensions,” a senior State Department official told reporters.

However, the official added, “profound differences” between the US and China were also evident throughout the discussion.

While Wang controls the nation’s foreign policy due to his position among the party’s central leadership, Qin has the title of Foreign Minister but has less authority than Wang.

As a follow-up to a cordial face-to-face between Biden and China’s Xi on the sidelines of the G20 in Bali in November, Blinken’s initial scheduled visit in early February had been established.

That meeting, the first in person between the two presidents, was viewed as a crucial step in reopening certain channels of contact that Beijing cut down last year after Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the US House, visited Taiwan.

Both the US and China had downplayed hopes for a significant achievement during Blinken’s visit.

Washington took pains to downplay expectations prior to the meeting, with a senior State Department official telling reporters last week that he does not expect “a long list of deliverables.”

Both parties are also figuring out how the meetings would appear to their respective domestic audiences in the meantime.

How aggressively to oppose China has become a contentious political issue in the US, with some senators criticising the Biden administration for holding talks with Beijing.

China believes that Washington is actively attempting to obstruct its development, and it is well aware that the US is about to enter a presidential election season, during which time harsh rhetoric against it might become more strident.

Its representatives also meet with Blinken in a setting where China’s official discourse and state media have long characterised the United States as a bad actor who is to blame for strained relations.

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