US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with China’s top foreign policy official in Beijing, after a delayed two-day mission to stabilize strained ties between the world’s largest economies got off to a positive start.
The top US diplomat shook hands with Wang Yi on Monday morning, before both sides sat down at long tables for talks, with most delegates wearing face masks. Their meeting comes after Blinken held talks with Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Sunday, which both sides described as “candid” and lasted 7 1/2 hours — much longer than planned, officials said.
The cautiously positive tone emerging from Blinken’s first day in China has raised expectations that the US official will sit down with President Xi Jinping later Monday. That exchange has been held up as a benchmark of success for the US trip, especially after the Chinese leader met American billionaire Bill Gates in Beijing last week.
The most senior US official to visit China in five years, Blinken is making his trip at a tumultuous time, with the two sides sparring over everything from human rights and technology to trade and weapons sales to Taiwan. Qin said on Sunday that Taiwan is “the core of the core interests” of China and “the most prominent risk” in China-US ties.
Blinken’s previous attempt to visit China in February was scrapped when the US revealed an alleged Chinese spy balloon was floating over American territory — an incident that led China to accuse the US of “hysteria.”
Chinese state media didn’t feature Blinken’s rescheduled visit prominently on Monday, with Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily giving his meeting with Qin a corner slot on page three. The state-run Global Times’ English language edition gave more prominence to Premier Li Qiang’s concurrent trip to Europe, to shore up ties with Germany and France.
Popular posts on China’s Twitter-like Weibo also questioned whether foreign media had used close-up shots of Blinken descending from his plane to avoid showing a muted reception on the tarmac, and criticized Western journalists for tweeting about Beijing’s smog when photos in Chinese state media of the US officials arriving showed bright blue skies.
Blinken’s talks with the Chinese foreign minister weren’t enough to lift the mood in early trading Monday, after limited details of potential future stimulus plans were released in the wake of Friday’s State Council meeting, disappointing markets.
Stock gauges fell in mainland China and Hong Kong, with the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropping as much as as much as 1.4% — set for its biggest daily decline this month — after it posted its best week since January on policy and stimulus optimism.
Blinken and Wang were planning on getting deeper into the specifics of core issues in their discussions on Monday, a senior State Department official said Sunday evening. The US side hopes to have more details to announce when Blinken speaks at a news conference ahead of his departure from China on Monday evening, the official added.
There are already signs of progress on tangible matters. Both sides on Sunday said they’d discussed increasing flights between the two countries, many of which were scrapped during the coronavirus pandemic. The two sides also agreed to encourage educational exchanges, according to the Chinese statement, a sign more student visas could be forthcoming.
Still, there was no expectation going into talks on Monday that the US and Chinese delegations would reconcile any of their fundamental differences, the official added. The previous day’s dialog had, however, improved the two sides’ understanding of each other and pushed talks toward a better outcome, the person said, while adding that doesn’t mean they agree.
Blinken’s visit is part of a renewed flurry of high-level US-China engagement that has gradually picked up momentum after the balloon incident derailed an attempt by Biden and Xi — who met late last year in Bali, Indonesia — to establish a steadier path for bilateral relations. Biden said Saturday he’s “hoping that over the next several months I’ll be meeting Xi again.”
Improved communication lines between the two sides are intended to decrease the chance of a military accident most likely in the South China Sea spiraling into a conflict. The US and Chinese militaries recently had two dangerous confrontations between naval vessels and jets in the region, which the Pentagon characterized as “unnecessarily aggressive” and “dangerous.”
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu — who is sanctioned by the US government — also recently rejected a meeting with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin when the two men attended a defense forum in Singapore this month.
--With assistance from Zhu Lin, Ishika Mookerjee, Jing Li and Lucille Liu.
(Updates with details throughout.)
