() — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is located in Beijing for a high-profile visit aimed at putting US-China relations on track after months of tensions between the two nations.
Officials from both governments have pointed out low expectations for the visit, and a senior State Department official told reporters earlier this week that he does not expect “a long list of results.”
Instead, US officials frame the trip as an effort to resume normal channels of communication with China to avoid conflict between two of the world’s great powers.
“What we are working on on this trip is really taking forward what President (Joe) Biden and President Xi (Jinping) agreed to in Bali late last year, which was to establish regular and sustained lines of communication at high levels of our governments precisely to make sure that we communicate as clearly as possible to avoid, as much as possible, misunderstandings and miscommunications,” Blinken said on Friday before his departure at a news conference together with the foreign minister of Singapore, Vivian Balakrishnan.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Beijing, China, on June 18. Leah Credit: Millis/Reuters
Blinken’s main goal in China is to restore communication channels, especially direct military-to-military communication, between Washington and Beijing, according to a senior State Department official.
The Biden administration’s relationship with Beijing is one of its most complicated and consequential, and has seen months of tension, including two military-related incidents in recent weeks.
Blinken’s trip, announced by Biden and Xi after their meeting last year, was originally scheduled for February and had been seen as a key follow-up engagement. However, it postponed after the discovery of an alleged Chinese spy balloon transiting the US, which Blinken said at the time “created conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip.”
However, Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said on Wednesday that both the United States and China have come to a “shared conclusion that this is the right time to engage at this level,” but “we are not We are going to Beijing with the intention of having some kind of breakthrough or transformation in the way we treat each other.”
“I think the fact that China has agreed to this meeting reflects that Beijing feels quite secure in its own position,” Patricia Kim, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, said at a news conference on Friday.
“Both sides make comments about the fact that this trip, this visit will not fundamentally change the US-China relationship or resolve the many disputes between the two countries, and I think there is this desire not to set expectations too high or seem too high. eager to commit to the other side. I think neither party wants to appear to accept or agree with the other party’s actions,” he explained.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Biden acknowledged “legitimate differences” with China but said he was willing to discuss “areas where we can get along.”
Blinken promises to raise “very real concerns”
Blinken said that in his meetings with senior Chinese officials he intends to raise “our very real concerns on a variety of issues.” Those issues include the fentanyl crisis, the Taiwan and cross-straits issues, the war in Ukraine, and China’s detention of US citizens, including Kai Li, Mark Swidan and David Lin.
On the fentanyl crisis, the senior State Department official indicated that Blinken’s specific focus is on stopping the flow of precursor chemicals from China to laboratories in South America, where fentanyl is produced.
Blinken also said Friday that he intends to “explore the potential for cooperation on transnational challenges: global economic stability, illicit synthetic drugs, climate, global health, where the interests of our countries intersect and the rest of the world expects us to cooperate.” .
His visit comes on the heels of a series of meetings between US and Chinese officials in recent weeks.
In May, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with the top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi, in Vienna, followed by talks between the two countries’ trade officials in Washington. China’s new ambassador has also arrived in the US, vowing to improve relations at a time of “serious difficulties and challenges.”
“China and the US have already had relatively frequent high-level diplomatic contacts, all of which indicates that the two sides are gradually returning to the right track,” said Shen Dingli, a China foreign policy expert in Shanghai.
However, contacts between the countries’ top military officials are still frozen, and it remains to be seen whether Blinken’s visit can lead to a breakthrough on that front. China rejected an offer for a formal meeting between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu (who is under US sanction) in Singapore last month, though the two spoke briefly.
The United States will also host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit in November, which China’s leader Xi will attend regardless of the state of the US-China relationship, according to Shen.
But whether, and at what level, Xi’s trip will include a formal visit to the US depends on “what the two sides can do beforehand,” Shen said.
Biden told reporters on Saturday that he believed Blinken’s trip to China could ease tensions and said he hoped to meet Xi again in the “coming months.”
Shen said two things mattered most to China: “handling differences on the Taiwan issue and preventing supply chains from becoming decoupled, especially in advanced chips.”
“The hope is that Blinken’s visit can improve relations both in form and substance. But the hope might not come true and relations might worsen after the visit,” she added. “We prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
Blinken did not predict whether his visit would open the way for continued high-level engagements between the US and China.
“As for what comes next, let’s see how the visit goes,” the top US diplomat said on Friday, referring to comments by his Singaporean counterpart. “This is an important step but, in a certain sense, insufficient because there is a lot of work to be done.”
