Meeting with Xi on the cards after Blinken meets top Chinese diplomat

Beijing — US secretary of state Antony Blinken met China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, at the start of the second and final day of a rare visit to Beijing on Monday, aimed at preventing the many disagreements between the rival powers from spiralling into conflict.

The two top diplomats shook hands inside a red-carpeted hall at the Diaoyutai state guest house in Beijing, before talks that state department officials said lasted about three hours.

All eyes will be on whether Blinken will also meet Chinese President Xi Jinping later in the day, an engagement sources familiar with the matter said is expected but is yet to be confirmed by the state department or Chinese officials.

He was also expected to meet US businesspeople in Beijing operating in the healthcare, car and entertainment industries to hear more on the business climate in China.

Making the first visit to China by a US secretary of state in five years, Blinken held more than 7½ hours’ “candid” and “constructive” talks with Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang on Sunday.

But, they appeared to make little concrete progress on the wide-ranging disputes, which include Taiwan, trade, human rights, stemming the flow of synthetic opioid fentanyl and its precursor chemicals from China, or over their differing viewpoints regarding the war in Ukraine.

Blinken stressed “the need to reduce the risk of misperception and miscalculation” in his talks with Qin.

Both sides emphasised the importance of making it easier for their citizens to visit, and agreed on working to increase passenger flights, which boosted Chinese airline shares.

They also expressed a desire to stabilise bilateral ties despite what one US official called their “profound” differences, and agreed that Qin would visit Washington to continue the conversation, though no date was announced.

“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 in an editorial on Monday.

Sustained diplomacy

Briefing reporters late on Sunday, US officials said there are no illusions that the issues will be solved with a few meetings but starting the conversations is an achievement.

“This is going to be a process of sustained diplomacy,” said one senior state department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Blinken’s trip, which was postponed in February after a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over US airspace, is closely followed worldwide as further deterioration of ties between the world’s two largest economies could have global implications on financial markets, trade practices and routes and supply chains.

“For this high-level interaction between China and the US, Taiwan closely grasps the relevant details,” Taiwan Premier Chen Chien-jen told reporters in central Taiwan.

Sino-US ties have deteriorated across the board in recent years, raising concern the two might one day clash militarily over the self-governed island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

Chinese readout of Sunday’s meetings described it as constructive but made clear that Taiwan is the most important issue, and a potentially dangerous one.

“Qin Gang pointed out that the Taiwan issue is the core of China’s core interests, the most important issue in Sino-US relations, and the most prominent risk,” Chinese state media quoted Qin as having told the top US diplomat.

Especially alarming for China’s neighbours has been Beijing’s reluctance to engage in regular military-to-military talks with Washington.

US officials have been playing down the prospect of a major breakthrough in talks, but they and analysts expect Blinken’s visit will pave the way for more bilateral meetings in coming months, including possible trips by Treasury secretary Janet Yellen and commerce secretary Gina Raimondo.

It could also set the stage for talks between Xi and Biden at multilateral summits later this year.

Biden and Xi held long-awaited first face-to-face talks on the sidelines of a summit of the Group of 20 big economies in November on the Indonesian island of Bali, engaging in blunt talks over Taiwan and North Korea but also pledging more frequent communication, though ties since then have deteriorated.

Reuters