Confirmed at the last minute, the meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, currently in China, and Xi Jinping has begun. The meeting takes place against a backdrop of tensions between the two powers and comes on the second and final day of Blinken’s visit, the first in nearly five years for a US Secretary of State.
In a long-awaited sign of appeasement, the Chinese head of state received his guest at the People’s Palace, the monumental building which is used to welcome foreign dignitaries on the edge of Tian’anmen Square.
At the end of this meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping, who hoped for this meeting a “positive result”, welcomed the “progress” in the China-United States relationship. “Both sides have made progress and reached common ground on some specific points,” he said, without specifying the latter, calling the progress “very good thing,” according to state broadcaster CCTV. .
Antony Blinken said he had seen with Chinese leaders the need to “stabilize” bilateral relations, while remaining “lucid” about deep disagreements. “None of these questions will be resolved in one visit.”
“In every meeting, I insisted that direct contact and sustained communication at the highest level was the best way to manage differences responsibly and ensure that competition did not escalate into conflict. I heard the same thing from my Chinese counterparts. We agree on the need to stabilize our relationship,” he said.
In addition to the very thorny question of the links between the United States and Taiwan, an island claimed by Beijing and at the heart of the disputes between the two powers, bilateral relations remain tense on a large number of issues.
Among them, the rivalry in technologies, the American sanctions targeting the Chinese digital giants, trade, the treatment of the Muslim minority of the Uyghurs in China or even the Chinese claims in the South China Sea. “We have no illusions about the challenges of managing this relationship. There are many issues on which we deeply, even vehemently, disagree,” Antony Blinken pointed out.
In the name of security concerns, the United States has implemented several measures in recent years to restrict Chinese companies’ access to certain American technologies or to complicate their manufacture of advanced semiconductors. But Washington is not trying to “stifle” Chinese economic development, he said. “We want growth. We want to see success in all parts of the world, including, of course, in major economies like China,” the US Secretary of State said.
“But at the same time,” it is “not in our interest to provide China with technologies that could be used against us,” he stressed. “While it is very opaquely developing its nuclear weapons program, producing hypersonic missiles, using technology for repressive purposes, what is in our interest to provide these specific technologies to China ? asked Antony Blinken.
On Taiwan, Beijing accuses Washington of strengthening its relations with the island in violation of their past commitments. But Antony Blinken asserted that the United States does not support the independence of the island territory, which Beijing has never given up on seizing by force. “At the same time, we, like many others, are deeply concerned about some of the provocations carried out by China in recent years, since 2016,” in the Taiwan Strait, he said. “On this issue, China will not make any compromises or concessions.”
Listing the other issues discussed with his Chinese interlocutors, the Secretary of State said he had asked China to use its influence on North Korea so that it puts an end to its missile fire. “It is in the interest of all members of the international community to encourage [North Korea] to act responsibly, to stop launching missiles and carrying out its nuclear program,” Antony Blinken said. “China is in a unique position to push Pyongyang to engage in dialogue and end its dangerous behavior. »
On Monday morning, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) top official for diplomacy, Wang Yi, did not hesitate to tell US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that a choice had to be made between “cooperation and conflict”. “There is a need to make a choice between dialogue and confrontation, cooperation and conflict,” he stressed. “The Secretary of State’s trip to Beijing comes at a critical time in China-US relations,” Wang Yi told his interlocutor, according to Chinese television CCTV.
Wang Yi also strongly reaffirmed his country’s position on the Taiwan issue, in the face of what Beijing perceives as a continuous rapprochement in recent years between Washington and the Taiwanese authorities, from a pro-independence party.
China considers Taiwan to be one of its provinces, which it has yet to successfully reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. “Maintaining national unity is always at the core of China’s core interests” and “on this issue, China will not make any compromises or concessions,” Wang Yi told Antony Blinken.
The American official had been received on Sunday by the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Qin Gang, who in the Chinese hierarchy is a notch below Wang Yi.
The two men had spoken for seven and a half hours, more than expected, the two countries agreeing to maintain communication between them in order to avoid any conflict.
The two countries announced on Sunday that Qin Gang had accepted an offer from the US Secretary of State to pay a visit to the United States, on a date yet to be determined.
The exchanges between the two men, which concluded with a banquet that evening at the Diaoyutai Diplomatic Complex, dotted with gardens, were “frank, substantial and constructive,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. Antony Blinken particularly underlined “the importance of diplomacy and maintaining open channels of communication on all issues in order to reduce the risk of misperception and miscalculation”, he said.
The Chinese Foreign Minister had deplored to his American counterpart that Beijing-Washington ties are “at their lowest” since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1979, according to Chinese diplomacy. “This is not in line with the fundamental interests of our two peoples, nor with the common expectations of the international community,” he stressed.
Antony Blinken’s visit is the first by a US secretary of state to China since the October 2018 trip of his predecessor, Mike Pompeo.