US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Beijing on Sunday, June 18, to meet with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang in an attempt to de-escalate tensions between the two countries.
The visit was earlier scheduled in February but was postponed due to the alleged Chinese spy balloon incident. There were also two recent close calls involving the two nations' military assets prior to Blinken's trip, worsening the already cold diplomatic, economic, and military rivalry between them.
Qin greeted Blinken at the door of the Diaoyutai State Guest House in central Beijing before heading into a meeting room. Both officials did not make any comments about what they had talked about.
Chinese assistant foreign minister Hua Chunying later tweeted the picture of Qin and Blinken shaking hands. "Hope this meeting can help steer China-US relations back to what the two Presidents agreed upon in Bali," she said.
Hopes for Warmer Relations
Blinken was the highest-ranking US government official to visit the Asian superpower since US President Joe Biden took office in 2021. His primary goal was to establish open and durable communication channels to ensure strategic rivalry between the US and China and prevent any possible conflict. Other objectives were advancing American and allied interests, directly addressing related concerns, and exploring areas of potential cooperation.
Part of Blinken's two-day trip was a scheduled meeting with former Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and possibly President Xi Jinping. US officials and analysts suggest his trip would pave the way for more bilateral meetings between Washington and Beijing in the coming months, including possible trips by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to meet their Chinese counterparts. The trip could also establish a possible meeting between Biden and Xi at multilateral summits later this year.
Blinken's visit would also be closely followed by the rest of the world, as any escalation between the superpowers could have global repercussions. A senior State Department official told reporters during a refueling stop in Tokyo that both the US and China recognize they both "need to have senior-level channels of communication."
"[W]e are at an important point in the relationship where I think reducing the risk of miscalculation, or as our Chinese friends often say, stopping the downward spiral in the relationship, is something that's important," the official added.
However, Al Jazeera correspondent Katrine Yu reported China to be "looking for assurances" from the US that it would not "meddle into its domestic affairs" or "cross the red lines of its core interests, particularly Taiwan."
"But that doesn't mean that it is not significant, especially as China's neighbors are very worried that the relationship has gone so bad that there is a danger of tensions spiraling out of control into some sort of open conflict," she added.
Biden Hopes to Talk with Xi Soon
Meanwhile, Biden told reporters Sunday he did not think Chinese officials knew much about the alleged spy balloon that flew across the United States, where it was, or what it did, and that he hoped to meet Xi soon to talk about this and other matters.
"I'm hoping that, over the next several months, I'll be meeting with Xi again and talking about legitimate differences we have but also how there's areas we can get along," he said.
While Biden and Xi already met at the G20 summit in Bali last November and talked about Taiwan and North Korea, the spy balloon incident later escalated tensions. It halted any high-level communication between the two.
