US secretary of state Antony Blinken arrived in Beijing early on Sunday on a high-stakes diplomatic mission to try cool exploding US-China tensions that have set many around the world on edge.
Mr Blinken started his mission by meeting Chinese minister for foreign affairs Qin Gang for an extended discussion on Sunday, to be followed by a working dinner.
He will have additional talks with Mr Qin, as well as China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, and possibly president Xi Jinping, on Monday.
Neither Mr Blinken nor Mr Qin made any substantive comments to reporters as they began the meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.
Mr Blinken is the highest-level US official to visit China since president Joe Biden took office and the first secretary of state to make the trip in five years.
The trip comes after he postponed plans to visit in February when a Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down over the US. Mr Biden and Mr Xi agreed to Mr Blinken’s trip at a meeting last year in Bali.
Prospects for any significant breakthrough on the most vexing issues facing the planet’s two largest economies are slim, as ties have grown increasingly fraught in recent years.
Animosity and recriminations have steadily escalated over a series of disagreements that have implications for global security and stability.
The list of disagreements and potential conflict points is long: ranging from trade with Taiwan, human rights conditions in China and Hong Kong, as well as the Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Mr Blinken will also be pressing the Chinese to release detained American citizens and to take steps to curb the production and export of fentanyl precursors that are fuelling the opioid crisis in the United States.
US officials said before Mr Blinken’s departure from Washington on Friday that he would raise each of them, though neither side has shown any inclination to back down on their positions.
Shortly before leaving, Mr Blinken emphasised the importance of the US and China establishing and maintaining better lines of communication.
The US wants to make sure “that the competition we have with China doesn’t veer into conflict” due to avoidable misunderstandings, he told reporters.
Mr Biden and Mr Xi had made commitments to improve communications “precisely so that we can make sure we are communicating as clearly as possible to avoid possible misunderstandings and miscommunications,” Mr Blinken said on Friday.
Mr Xi offered a hint of a possible willingness to reduce tensions, saying in a meeting with Microsoft Corporation co-founder Bill Gates on Friday that the US and China can co-operate to “benefit our two countries”.
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“I believe that the foundation of Sino-US relations lies in the people,” Mr Xi said to Mr Gates.
“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.”
Mr Biden told White House reporters on Saturday he was “hoping that over the next several months, I’ll be meeting with Xi again and talking about legitimate differences we have, but also how … to get along”. – Associated Press