Blink in Beijing
China and US resume communication
China’s top foreign policy chief Wang Yi (r) welcomes US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing. photo
© Leah Millis/Reuters Pool/AP/dpa
After months of disputes, the US and China are trying to mend their troubled relations. US Secretary of State Blinken holds in-depth talks in Beijing. Is there any progress?
In the tensions between the US and China, both sides are talking directly to each other again for the first time. On the second day of his visit to China, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also met with Chinese top foreign policy leader Wang Yi in Beijing.
In China’s power hierarchy, the top politician is above Foreign Minister Qin Gang. The first visit by a US Secretary of State to China since 2018 comes amid deep differences and ongoing disputes between the rival powers, with Beijing also having severed channels of communication.
Wang Yi accused the US of having a “misperception” of his country, which in turn led to “wrong policies” towards the People’s Republic. Blinken’s first visit to China comes at a critical time. “It is necessary to choose between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict.”
The US must stop promoting the “theory of a threat from China,” the former secretary of state said. They must also lift “illegal unilateral sanctions” and end his country’s “suppression of technological development.” In addition, the US should not continue to deliberately interfere in China’s internal affairs, Wang Yi said, according to state television.
Hours of conversation
According to US reports, Blinken spoke to his counterpart for seven and a half hours yesterday – much longer than planned. The US Secretary of State also invited Qin Gang to pay a return visit to Washington. Both sides described the talks in official statements that followed as frank, in-depth and constructive. However, the Chinese foreign minister saw the mutual relationship “at its lowest point” since diplomatic relations were established in 1979.
Nevertheless, there was speculation as to whether Blinken might even be received by head of state and party leader Xi Jinping on Monday. However, such a meeting would be unusual in terms of protocol and could be seen as a special gesture. There was initially no confirmation in Beijing that such a meeting could be planned. Blinken is making up for a trip that was originally supposed to take place in February – but was then canceled at short notice due to allegations of espionage against China about the balloon affair.
Difficult contact search
According to the US State Department, Blinken addressed a number of conflicting issues, as well as areas where China and the United States could work together. In the conversation with Qin Gang, he reiterated that the United States was pursuing a vision of a world “that is free and open and that upholds the order based on international rules.” His counterpart said China wants “stable, predictable and constructive” relations and hopes the US will “work in the same direction”.
In the heightened tensions since last summer, the Chinese side had repeatedly refused to talk via the existing communication channels, as a US diplomat described. “We tried several times to get in touch, but nobody answered the phone in Beijing,” said the diplomat. He cited events such as China’s major maneuvers in response to then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August, as well as other incidents between the two sides’ armed forces in the Taiwan Strait or the South China Sea.
“Clear demands on the Taiwan question”
Earlier this month, Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu also refused to meet his US counterpart Lloyd Austin on the sidelines of the Asian Shangri-La security dialogue in Singapore. Despite his own refusal to talk in recent months, the Chinese foreign minister in the meeting with Blinken urged the US side to work with China “to deal with unexpected and sporadic incidents in a calm, professional and rational manner.”
At the same time, Qin Gang made “clear demands on the Taiwan question”: The United States should adhere to the “One China principle”, honor its commitments and not support the independence forces in Taiwan. One China policy means that Beijing is seen as China’s only legitimate government. China regards democratic Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic and threatens to conquer it. In Taipei, however, an independent government has been in power for more than seven decades, which today no longer claims to want to represent all of China.