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US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Beijing for a two-day visit, the first by a US secretary of state in 5 years, amid a chill in bilateral relations and little hope of a breakthrough over a long list of differences between the world’s two largest economies.
After the visit was postponed last February due to the issue of the Chinese balloon that flew in US airspace, Blinken became the most senior US government official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.
and it’s expected For Blinken to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Gang, senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi, and perhaps President Xi Jinping, and work to establish open and permanent channels of communication to ensure that strategic competition between the two countries does not turn into conflict.
US-Chinese relations deteriorated in various fields, raising fears that they might clash militarily one day over the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China says belongs to it.
They are also at odds over several major issues, including trade, US efforts to curb China’s semiconductor industry, and Beijing’s human rights record.
Of particular concern to China’s neighbors is its reluctance to participate in regular talks between its military and the US military, despite Washington’s repeated attempts to do so.
Speaking at a press conference Friday before leaving for Beijing, Blinken said the trip has 3 main goals, which are to establish crisis management mechanisms, promote the interests of the United States and its allies and speak directly about related concerns, and explore areas of potential cooperation.
But US officials, who reviewed the visit program in a telephone briefing a few days ago, played down expectations of little progress and said a breakthrough was unlikely on any of the major issues.
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