Blinken ends rare China visit may see Xi Jinping. On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi on the second and last day of a rare visit to Beijing to prevent the strategic rivals’ many disagreements from turning into war.
The senior diplomats clasped hands in a red-carpeted hall at the Diaoyutai State guest house in Beijing before meeting with respective delegations. They only exchanged pleasantries.
Blinken’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping later in the day, expected but unconfirmed by the State Department, will be closely watched.
Blinken, the first U.S. secretary of state to visit China in five years, held more than 7-1/2 hours of “candid” and “constructive” talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Sunday. Still, they did not appear to make any progress on the wide-ranging disputes over Taiwan, trade, human rights, and fentanyl.
Despite their “profound” differences, both parties decided Qin would visit Washington to continue the conversation.
“Despite very low expectations for any breakthroughs made during Blinken’s visit to China, there is still hope that both sides can maintain their ‘bottom line’ in the relationship,” state-run Chinese tabloid Global Times said on Monday.
U.S. officials told reporters late Sunday that starting the dialogues was a success.
“This is going to be a process of sustained diplomacy,” a senior State Department official said on condition of anonymity.
Blinken’s trip, postponed in February after a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over U.S. airspace, is closely watched worldwide because further deterioration of relations between the world’s two largest economies could affect financial markets, trade routes, and supply chains.
“For this high-level interaction between China and the United States, Taiwan closely grasps the relevant details,” Taiwan Premier Chen Chien-Jen told reporters in central Taiwan.
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