Maintain the dialogue. That is the goal of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who arrived in Beijing on Sunday. The visit is the highest-level visit by a U.S. diplomat in nearly five years, aimed at easing bilateral tensions.

While no one expects major progress as there are so many areas of friction, the idea remains to initiate a diplomatic thaw and maintain a dialogue to “responsibly manage the Sino-American relationship”, according to the department. of state.

Because time is running out. Next year will be an election deadline in both the United States and Taiwan, which China considers one of its provinces that it must reunite, by force if necessary.

And a trifle can turn things around: for example, the visit of the head of the American diplomacy was initially planned for February, in the wake of the meeting, last November, between the American president Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, in sidelines of a G20 summit in Indonesia.

But it was canceled at the last minute. In question: the overflight of American territory by a Chinese balloon, accused by Washington of being a “spy” aircraft, while Beijing assured that it was a meteorological device having deviated from its trajectory.

As Blinken headed to China, US President Joe Biden played down this latest episode. “I don’t think the leaders knew where it was, what was in it and what was going on,” he told reporters on Saturday. “I think it was more embarrassing than intentional,” he added.

He also said he hoped to meet President Xi Jinping again “in the coming months”: “[To] talk about our legitimate differences, but also about areas where we can agree. Joe Biden and Xi had a long and surprisingly cordial meeting in November 2022, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali.

Speaking in Washington before his departure, Antony Blinken wanted to be moderately optimistic. The two-day trip is to “open direct lines of communication so that our two countries can manage our relationship responsibly, including addressing some challenges and misperceptions and avoiding miscalculations,” he said. -he declares.

“Intense competition requires continued diplomacy to ensure that it does not turn into confrontation or conflict,” he added, as “the world expects the United States and China cooperate”.

Among the main disputes, trade and the autonomous democratic island of Taiwan, which Beijing has not ruled out seizing by force.

Ahead of Blinken’s visit, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said the United States should “respect China’s core concerns” and work with Beijing.

“The United States must abandon the illusion of dealing with China ‘from a position of strength’. China and the United States should develop relations based on mutual respect and equality, respecting their differences,” he said.

Blinken’s visit is the first by a US secretary of state to China since the October 2018 trip of his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, who later spearheaded the confrontational strategy with Beijing in the last years of the war. the presidency of Donald Trump.

The Biden administration has since maintained this hard line, going even further in some areas, including through the imposition of export controls to limit Beijing’s purchase and manufacture of high-end chips “used in applications. military”.

But she wants to cooperate with China on key issues, such as the climate. Blinken’s visit also comes as part of China is experiencing a heat wave, with a new temperature record for mid-June crossed on Friday in Beijing at 39.4 ° C.

For Danny Russel, a former senior US State Department official, each side has a stake in the visit: China hopes to avoid further US restrictions on technology and any new support for Taiwan. The United States, on the other hand, wishes to prevent any incident likely to lead to a military confrontation.

“Blinken’s brief visit won’t solve any of the big problems in the US-China relationship, or even necessarily the small problems. Nor will it prevent either side from pursuing their competitive agendas,” said Danny Russel, now vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York.

“But his visit may well rekindle a much-needed face-to-face dialogue and send a signal that both countries are moving from angry rhetoric in the face of the media to more sober talks behind closed doors. . »