The visit scheduled for March was canceled for the first time, amid diplomatic and trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. On the first day of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing to ease relations, Washington on Sunday (June 18) hailed “constructive” and “honest” discussions and welcomed the agreement given by the head of Chinese diplomacy for an upcoming visit to Washington.
Although no one was expecting major progress as there are so many areas of friction between the two powers, in particular on trade and on the subject of Taiwan, the idea was to initiate a diplomatic thaw and to maintain a dialogue to ” responsibly manage the China-US relationship,” according to the State Department.
This two-day visit is the first trip by an American diplomat to Chinese soil in nearly five years.
“Keeping communication channels open”
Mr. Blinken met his Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, at an ornate state villa in the ancient Diaoyutai Gardens in Beijing, where his Chinese hosts were then to hold a banquet.
The two men had “frank, substantive, and constructive” talks, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said after the meeting. Mr. Blinken said “the importance of diplomacy and maintaining open channels of communication on all issues to reduce the risk of misperception and miscalculation,” he said.
Antony Blinken also invited Mr. Qin and the two men agreed to “schedule such a visit at a mutually convenient date”, to be fixed later, Mr. Miller said.
China’s foreign minister reminded his American counterpart that relations between Beijing and Washington had been “at their lowest point” since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1979, according to comments reported by state television CCTV.
Taiwan, “most important” subject of tension, according to Beijing
“The issue of Taiwan is the fundamental issue of China’s overriding interests, the most important issue in China-US relations and the most important peril” for them, said Qin Gang, still according to CCTV. China considers Taiwan as one of its provinces, which it must reunify, by force if necessary.
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, on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Indonesia.
It had been 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.
On the occasion of the visit of his Secretary of State to China, Joe Biden minimized the episode of the balloon. “I don’t think the leadership knew where it was, what was in it, and what was going on,” Trump told reporters on Saturday, adding, “I think it was more embarrassing than intentional. . »
The US president said he hoped to meet Xi Jinping again “in the coming months”. The two leaders are expected to attend the upcoming G20 summit in September in New Delhi, and Xi has been invited to come to San Francisco in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
confrontation strategy
The last visit of an American Secretary of State to China dates from October 2018: it was Mike Pompeo, who was then the mastermind of the strategy of confrontation with Beijing in the last years of the presidency of Donald Trump.
The Biden administration has since maintained this hard line, going even further in some areas, such as imposing export controls to limit Beijing’s purchase and manufacture of high-end chips “used in military applications”.
However, it wants to cooperate with China on crucial issues such as the climate. Mr. Blinken’s visit also comes as part of China is experiencing a heat wave – unprecedented temperatures for mid-June were recorded Friday in Beijing, at 39.4 ° C.
