San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
BLINKEN ARRIVES IN BEIJING TO EASE RISING U.S.-CHINA TENSIONS
He is first American secretary of state to visit in five years
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Beijing early today on a high-stakes diplomatic mission to try to cool exploding U.s.-china tensions that have set many around the world on edge.
He is the highest-level American official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office and the first secretary of state to make the trip in five years.
The two-day visit comes after he postponed a planned trip in February after the shootdown of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the U.S.
Yet prospects for any significant breakthrough on the most vexing issues facing the planet’s two largest economies are slim, as already ties have grown increasingly fraught in recent years. Animosity and recriminations have steadily escalated over a series of disagreements that have implications for global security and stability.
Blinken plans to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, top diplomat Wang Yi, and possibly President Xi Jinping, according to U.S. officials.
Biden and Xi agreed to Blinken’s previously planned trip at a meeting last year in Bali. It came within a day of happening in February but was delayed by the diplomatic and political tumult brought on by the discovery of what the U.S. says was a Chinese spy balloon flying across the United States that was shot down.
The list of disagreements and potential conf lict points is long: ranging from trade with Taiwan, human rights conditions in China to Hong Kong, as well as the Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
U.S. officials said before Blinken’s departure from Washington on Friday that he would raise each of them, though neither side has shown any inclination to back down on their positions.
Shortly before leaving, Blinken emphasized the importance of the U.S. and China establishing and maintaining better lines of communication. The U.S. wants to make sure “that the competition we have with China doesn’t veer into conflict” due to avoidable misunderstandings, he told reporters.
Biden and Xi had made commitments to improve communications “precisely so that we can make sure we are communicating as clearly as possible to avoid possible misunderstandings and miscommunications,” Blinken said Friday.
Xi offered a hint of a possible willingness to reduce tensions, saying in a meeting with Microsoft Corp. cofounder Bill Gates on Friday that the United States and China can cooperate to “benefit our two countries.”
“I believe that the foundation of Sino-u.s. relations lies in the people,” Xi said to Gates. “Under the current world situation, we can carry out various activities that benefit our two countries, the people of our countries, and the entire human race.”
Biden told White House reporters Saturday he was “hoping that over the next several months, I’ll be meeting with Xi again and talking about legitimate differences we have, but also how ... to get along.” Chances could come at a Group of 20 leaders’ gathering in September in New Delhi and at the Asiapacific Economic Cooperation summit in November in San Francisco that the United States is hosting.
Since the cancellation of Blinken’s trip in February, there have been some highlevel engagements. CIA chief William Burns traveled to China in May, while China’s commerce minister traveled to the U.S. Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Wang in Vienna in May.
But those have been punctuated by bursts of angry rhetoric from both sides over the Taiwan Strait, their broader intentions in the Indo-pacific, China’s refusal to condemn Russia for its war against Ukraine, and U.S. allegations from Washington that Beijing is attempting to boost its worldwide surveillance capabilities, including in Cuba.
And, earlier this month, China’s defense minister rebuffed a request from U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for a meeting on the sidelines of a security symposium in Singapore, a sign of continuing discontent.