On the other hand, there was no agreement on the establishment of a military crisis hotline, the US Secretary of State regretted in his press conference.
(Photo: AP)
Beijing The two world powers are talking to each other again. This is the main signal sent by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing. Despite all the critical tones of the hosts, he was also received by China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping on Monday.
This is seen as a sign from the Chinese government that they, too, want to improve the shattered relationship with Washington. Donald Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not meet Xi in 2018.
Blinken became the first US Secretary of State to travel to Beijing in five years. In addition to Xi, he met China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and Foreign Minister Qin Gang. He made up for a visit originally planned for February.
He had canceled this due to the scandal surrounding a suspected Chinese spy balloon over US territory. In the meantime, there was a dangerous radio silence between the two countries.
Both sides now pledged to maintain dialogue at the highest level. In the roughly half-hour conversation with Blinken, Xi praised the “progress” made at his meetings in Beijing. Both sides had “reached agreement on certain issues,” Xi said, without giving details.
No rapprochement on central conflict issues
US Secretary of State Blinken was a bit more specific at a press conference at the US Embassy in Beijing. There are talks to increase the number of flights between China and the United States.
In addition, they want to set up a working group to get a better grip on the problems with the drug fentanyl, the precursors of which come from China, among other places.
The surprising meeting on Monday in Beijing is unusual in terms of protocol.
(Photo: Reuters)
Blinken regretted that there was no agreement on setting up a military crisis hotline. Recently there had been several incidents between American and Chinese forces in the South China Sea. These had increased concerns of an escalation.
As expected, there was no rapprochement on the central conflict issues. In the dispute over Taiwan in particular, the world powers are irreconcilably opposed. The Chinese leadership claims the self-governing, democratically governed island as its sovereign territory and is pushing for “unification.” The US, in turn, has pledged to strengthen Taiwan’s defense capabilities. The US Secretary of State criticized China’s “provocative actions”.
Sharp criticism from Wang Yi
How tense the relationship still is is also shown by the strikingly sharp tone in the official statements by the Chinese side. In his conversation with Blinken, top diplomat Wang Yi emphasized that the two countries are at a crossroads “where a decision must be made between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict”.
Geopolitical tensions: Xi Jinping meets US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken at short notice in Beijing
Wang is a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s inner circle and thus more influential than Foreign Minister Qin Gang. Qin, with whom Blinken spoke for more than seven hours on Sunday, described relations with the United States as bad as they had been since bilateral relations began in 1979.
The Chinese government once again blamed the USA for this. The United States has “a wrong image of China, leading to wrong policies towards China,” Wang Yi said. Specifically, he called on the US not to interfere in the Taiwan issue and an end to sanctions against China.
Blinken made it clear that it is not in the US interest to provide China with technology that the country uses to modernize its military and oppress its people. Therefore, targeted sanctions will be adhered to. However, the USA did not try to slow down China’s economic rise, but rather wanted trade relations to be strengthened.
Shortly before Blinken’s arrival in Beijing, US President Joe Biden sent a conciliatory message to Beijing: He didn’t think the Chinese government “knew where the balloon was, what it contained and what was going on,” Biden said on Saturday . The United States has so far not published any investigation results into the downed Chinese balloon, ostensibly in order not to further strain relations with China.
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