Chinese President Xi meets with US Secretary of State Blinken; Said, agreement reached on ‘some issues’

Beijing: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday, who said an agreement was reached on “certain specific issues” during wide-ranging talks between the two countries’ top diplomats amid strained ties. Blinken met Xi on the final day of his two-day high-stakes trip to Beijing, during which the Chinese president spoke of the deal without giving any details.

Xi said China’s top diplomat and director of foreign affairs Wang Yi and Foreign Minister Qin Gang described their talks with Blinken as “frank and in-depth”. The Chinese side has made its position clear, and the two sides “had common understanding that US President Joe Biden and I had arrived in Bali,” state-run CGTN quoted President Xi as saying.

“The two sides also made progress and reached an agreement on some specific issues,” Xi said without giving details. “State-to-state dialogue should always be based on mutual respect and honesty. I hope that through this visit, Secretary Blinken can make positive contributions to stabilizing China-US relations,” he said.

Blinken’s visit to China was one of the key outcomes of the Xi-Biden meeting in which they agreed to work on improving ties. Earlier, Blinken met with top diplomat Wang, who urged the US to “deeply think” and manage differences with China, attributing the deteriorating ties to Washington’s “misperception” about Beijing.

Wang told Blinken that his visit to Beijing came at a turning point in US-China relations and that a choice between dialogue and confrontation, cooperation and conflict was necessary. He said, “China-US relations have experienced ups and downs, and it is necessary for the US to think deeply and work with China to jointly manage differences and avoid strategic surprises.” ”

“With the attitude of being responsible to the people, history and the world, we should reverse the downward spiral of Sino-US relations, push for a return to a healthy and stable track, and build a relationship between China and China.” We must work together to find the right path.” United States to get along in the new era,” he said.

Wang also urged the US not to assume that China is seeking dominance, and not to misjudge Beijing based on the trajectories of traditional Western powers. “It is crucial to whether the US policy towards China can really return to fairness and rationality,” Wang said in a report in the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

Wang, who is Xi’s top foreign policy adviser, also called on the US to lift unilateral sanctions against China, stop suppressing China’s technological development and not interfere in Beijing’s internal affairs.

On Taiwan, Wang stressed that safeguarding its national unity will always be at the heart of China’s core interests and there is no room for compromise. China views Taiwan as a breakaway province. Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to reunite the self-ruled island with the mainland.

According to the Chinese statement on the meeting, Blinken shared Washington’s views with Wang, adding that the US looks forward to strengthening communication with China and managing differences responsibly.

Blinken is the highest-level US official to visit China since President Biden took office, and the first secretary of state to visit in five years. His visit is expected to mark the beginning of a new round of visits by senior US and Chinese officials, possibly including a meeting between Xi and Biden in the coming months. His visit also comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington and his meeting with President Biden on June 22. Their talks are expected to deepen defense cooperation and strengthen the Quad alliance of the US, India, Australia and Japan. China alleges that its aim is to stop it.

Ahead of Blinken’s visit to Beijing, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the US expected a “transformational moment” in Indian relations during Modi’s visit to Washington and downplayed the Secretary of State’s visit to Beijing.

“Secretary Blinken’s visit to China will be an important event, but it may not even be the most important event next week when it comes to American foreign policy,” Sullivan told reporters in Tokyo on June 16.

Blinken’s visit was largely seen as an effort to keep communication channels open between Washington and Beijing so that bilateral relations could be managed responsibly. Analysts say the visit signals a desire by both sides to restore engagement but cast doubt on the chances of a breakthrough, the South China Morning Post reported. Both sides have not yet commented on the talks.

Before leaving for Beijing on Saturday, Blinken said one of his goals was to establish open and forceful communication with Chinese officials. He said he would speak directly and frankly about very real concerns on a range of issues.

He said that the intense competition requires sustained diplomacy to ensure that competition does not turn into confrontation or conflict. Shanghai-based news site The Paper quoted Wu Xinbo, head of US studies at Fudan University, as saying that during the visit Blinken is expected to establish a road map and timetable on senior bilateral exchanges with the Chinese side.

Qin Feng, an academic committee member at Peking University’s Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding, said Blinken’s visit was part of preparations for President Xi’s visit to the United States in November, where he is expected to meet President Biden on the sidelines of APEC. hopefully. meeting.

In a way, the embodiment of Blinken’s visit to Beijing is a success in itself. It marks progress in preparations for the summit of the leaders of the two countries, which was delayed by the balloon incident. Qin Feng said, now there is a lot to be done on the work level.

On June 16, President Xi met with Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates. He said, “I believe that the foundation of China-US relations lies in the people. 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.” Are.” His meeting with Gates.

Biden told White House reporters on Saturday that he hoped that, over the next several months, he would meet again with Xi to talk about the legitimate differences between the two countries and how to come together.

The possibility of such a meeting could come at the Group of 20 leaders’ meeting in New Delhi in September and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November, which is being hosted by the United States.