The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has wrapped up a rare trip to Beijing where he met China’s president, Xi Jinping, concluding a high-stakes visit aimed at stabilising spiralling relations.
Speaking at a press briefing in Beijing before his departure, Blinken said he had had “an important conversation” with Xi during the 35-minute encounter and stressed it was the responsibility of both countries to find a path forward.
“In every meeting, I stressed that direct engagement and sustained communication at senior levels is the best way to responsibly manage our differences and ensure competition does not veer into conflict,” Blinken said. “I heard the same from my Chinese counterparts.”
Blinken, the first holder of his post to meet the Chinese leader since 2018, strode towards Xi with his hand outstretched at the Great Hall of the People, a venue China often uses for greeting heads of state – positive signals in the choreography of diplomacy.
“The two sides have had candid and in-depth discussions,” Xi said at the start of the meeting, in comments broadcast on Chinese state television. “I hope that through this visit, Mr Secretary, you will make more positive contributions to stabilising China-US relations,” Xi added, addressing Blinken.
The rest of the discussion was held behind closed doors. The Chinese readout said the two sides “made progress” and reached agreement on specific issues, without offering further details.
Despite signs of positivity, Blinken acknowledged there were issues on which the two countries disagreed profoundly and even vehemently. China rejected a proposal to set up communication between the Chinese and American militaries. “I want to emphasise that none of this gets resolved in one visit, one trip, one conversation. It’s a process,” Blinken said.
The state department said later that in Blinken’s meetings he had raised China’s “unfair and nonmarket economic practices”, human rights violations in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, and “peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”.
“The two sides discussed a range of global and regional security issues, including Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, [North Korea’s] provocative actions, and US concerns with [Chinese] intelligence activities in Cuba,” said Matthew Miller, a state department spokesperson.
Blinken’s visit is the first by a US secretary of state in five years. Tensions between the world’s two largest economies have soared in recent years over a host of issues including trade, technology and Taiwan, with Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, calling Beijing the most serious threat to long-term US global primacy.
Earlier on Monday, Blinken held extensive discussions with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, at the Diaoyutai state guest house. On Sunday, he held talks with China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, for more than seven hours.
According to a Chinese readout, Wang said China-US relations were at “a critical juncture” and called on the US to make a choice “between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict”.
Wang stressed the need to reverse the downward spiral in bilateral ties, but also blamed the current low point on the US’s “erroneous perception of China”.
Moritz Rudolf, a fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, said Wang’s confrontational tone “shows the great level of mistrust of Beijing vis-a-vis the US”. However, given the bleak state of US-China relations, the mere fact that the visit had taken place was a positive sign, he said.
Blinken’s trip to China was initially planned for February but was postponed when a balloon, allegedly a Chinese spy balloon, flew over the US, sparking a controversy. China insisted it was a weather balloon that had been blown off course.
Given the fraught relations, expectations of the meetings were generally low. Both countries hold hardened positions on a range of issues including trade, Xinjiang and Taiwan.
But both sides showed a willingness to talk, with Qin and Blinken agreeing to maintain high-level exchanges and expand cultural and educational exchanges.
The meetings could launch the process for more diplomatic engagement between the US and China, laying the ground for a Xi-Biden meeting, for instance, at the Apec summit that will take place in San Francisco in November, Rudolf said.
“The reopening of bilateral communication channels, including on security-related matters, would be a step in the right direction,” he said.
Beijing and other western countries have also sought to stabilise relations after a tense few years. On Monday, the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, arrived in Germany for a diplomatic trip that will include a visit to France.
Reuters contributed to this report
