With Blinken’s trip to China, the United States seeks to reduce tensions

First modification: 06/18/2023 – 11:41

The acronym “US Secretary of State” on the plane door as it opened, followed immediately by Antony Blinken coming down the stairs and waving to the waiting delegations of US and Chinese officials. This is a scene that took place this Sunday morning at the Beijing airport and could mean a big event, according to our correspondent in Beijing, Stéphane Lagarde. However, the US official was not received with a red carpet, since the Chinese government was in charge of specifying that it is not an invitation, but a visit agreed by both parties.

Since the United States shot down some spy balloons from China in its territory in February 2023, the already tense relations worsened, but then they lowered their tone with marathon diplomatic negotiations: the Americans don’t even talk about sanctions anymore nor of spy balloons, mainly.

According to the official Chinese press, the preparatory telephone call for this meeting between Antony Blinken and his Chinese counterpart, the Qin Gang, revealed that there are still important disagreements. “The United States should not delude themselves that they can negotiate with China from a position of strength,” according to what can be read. This undiplomatic language is nothing new, and it has been going on for two years, when officials from both countries met in the city of Anchorage, Alaska.

reassure the world

Antony Blinken knows very well that the instability of relations between China and the United States keep “the world stressed,” Carrie Nooten, an RFI correspondent, tells us from New York.

The two largest economic powers on the planet differ on issues such as human rights, technology trade and arms sales to Taiwan. China regards US ships passing near the Taiwan Strait or US officials visiting Taiwan as provocations. “This visit will be of no use if an agreement on Taiwan is not reached,” published the Global Timesa newspaper affiliated with the Communist Party of China.

For his part, the US Secretary of State intends with this trip to implement crisis management mechanisms. South Korea and Japan, China’s neighbors, are very concerned that Beijing has cut off military media. Washington knows that Beijing is tough on this issue, so it doesn’t expect to make any progress on it.

Given the difficulties encountered in this first meeting, the objective will then be to re-establish dialogue and schedule new bilateral meetings, and even a meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in the following months.