US secretary of state Antony Blinken has met his Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, in Beijing at the start of a two-day visit aimed at stabilising relations between the world’s two biggest economies. The meeting lasted more than five hours, according to US reports, before the two men went into a working dinner.
Mr Blinken, who postponed a planned visit in February after a Chinese spy balloon flew over American airspace, is the most senior US political figure to visit China since Joe Biden became president in 2021.
“Hope this meeting can help steer China-US relations back to what the two presidents agreed upon in Bali,” tweeted China’s assistant foreign minister Hua Chunying, who also attended the meeting, as Mr Qin greeted Mr Blinken outside the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.
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When Mr Biden and Xi Jinping met in Bali last November on the margins of a G20 summit, they agreed to initiate more high-level bilateral contacts including Mr Blinken’s visit to Beijing. But tensions have risen in recent months amid Chinese anger over what it sees as US interference over Taiwan, US accusations of economic coercion against Beijing and narrowly avoided clashes between the two countries’ warships.
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Mr Biden on Sunday played down the importance of the spy balloon, which the US shot down over the Atlantic Ocean, and said he hoped to meet Mr Xi soon.
“China has some legitimate difficulties ... unrelated to the United States. And I think one of the things that that balloon caused was not so much that it got shot down, but I don’t think the leadership knew where it was and knew what was in it and knew what was going on ... I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional,” he told reporters at the White House.
“And so I’m hoping that over the next several months I’ll be meeting with Xi again and talking about legitimate differences we have but also how there’s areas we can get along.”
The Chinese authorities did not publish details of the agenda for Mr Blinken’s visit to Beijing, but US media reported that he would meet Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, on Monday. There has been speculation about a meeting with Mr Xi on Monday, but neither side had confirmed on Sunday night that it would go ahead.
Chinese reports have framed Mr Blinken’s visit as part of a process to prepare for a meeting between Mr Xi and Mr Biden in November, when San Francisco will host an Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit. US treasury secretary Janet Yellen and commerce secretary Gina Raimondo are expected to visit China after Mr Blinken.
Before he arrived in Beijing, Mr Blinken said he hoped to establish “open and empowered communications” with Chinese officials, adding that he would speak “directly and candidly” about US concerns on a range of issues.
“Intense competition requires sustained diplomacy to ensure that competition does not veer into confrontation or conflict,” he said.
