U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has launched into a high-stakes diplomatic trip to China to attempt to cool down escalating tensions between the 2 powers which have set many world wide on edge.
Blinken might be the highest-level American official to go to China since President Joe Biden took office, and the primary secretary of state to make the trip in five years.
Yet prospects for any significant breakthrough on probably the most vexing issues facing the planet’s two largest economies are slim, as already ties have grown increasingly fraught in recent times. Animosity and recriminations have steadily escalated over a series of disagreements which have implications for global security and stability.
Blinken arrives in Beijing on Sunday for 2 days of talks. He expects to fulfill with Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Sunday, top diplomat Wang Yi, and possibly Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday, based on U.S. officials.
Biden and Xi Jinping agreed to Blinken’s trip early at a gathering last 12 months in Bali. It got here inside a day of happening in February but was delayed by the diplomatic and political tumult brought on by the invention of what the U.S. says was a Chinese spy balloon flying across the USA that was shot down.
The list of disagreements and potential conflict points is long: starting from trade with Taiwan, human rights conditions in China to Hong Kong, in addition to the Chinese military assertiveness within the South China Sea to 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 higher lines of communication. The U.S. desires to be sure that “that the competition we’ve with China doesn’t veer into conflict” on account of avoidable misunderstandings, he told reporters.
Biden and Xi had made commitments to enhance communications “precisely in order that we will be sure that we’re communicating as clearly as possible to avoid possible misunderstandings and miscommunications,” Blinken said Friday.
Xi offered a touch of a possible willingness to cut back tensions, saying Friday that the USA and China can cooperate to “profit our two countries” in a gathering with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
“I feel that the muse of Sino-U.S. relations lies within the people,” Xi said to Gates. “Under the present world situation, we will perform various activities that profit our two countries, the people of our countries, and the complete human race.”
Because the cancellation of Blinken’s trip in February, there have been some high-level engagements. CIA chief William Burns traveled to China in May, while China’s commerce minister traveled to the U.S. And Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Yi in Vienna in May.
But those have been punctuated by bursts of offended rhetoric from either side over the Taiwan Strait, their broader intentions within the Indo-Pacific, China’s refusal to sentence Russia for its war against Ukraine, and U.S. allegations from Washington that Beijing is attempting to spice up 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 gathering on the sidelines of a security symposium in Singapore, an indication of constant discontent.
Austin said Friday he was confident that he and his Chinese counterpart would meet “in some unspecified time in the future in time, but we’re not there yet.”
Underscoring the situation, China rejected a report by a U.S. security firm, that blamed Chinese-linked hackers for attacks on a whole lot of public agencies, schools and other targets world wide, as “far-fetched and unprofessional”
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson repeated accusations that Washington carries out hacking attacks and complained the cybersecurity industry rarely reports on them.
That followed the same retort earlier within the week when China said Qin had in a phone call with Blinken urged the USA to respect “China’s core concerns” equivalent to the problem of Taiwan’s self-rule, and “stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, and stop harming China’s sovereignty, security and development interests within the name of competition.”
Meanwhile, the national security advisers of the USA, Japan and the Philippines held their first joint talks Friday and agreed to strengthen their defense cooperation, partially to counter China’s growing influence and ambitions.
This coincides with the Biden administration inking an agreement with Australia and Britain to supply the primary with nuclear-powered submarines, with China moving rapidly to expand its diplomatic presence, especially within the Indian Ocean and the Pacific island nations, where it has opened or has plans to open at the very least five recent embassies over the subsequent 12 months.
The agreement is an element of an 18-month-old nuclear partnership given the acronym AUKUS — for Australia, the UK and the USA.
Speaking before Blinken’s departure, two U.S. officials downplayed hopes for major progress and stressed that the trip was intended to revive a way of calm and normalcy to high-level contacts.
“We’re coming to Beijing with a sensible, confident approach and a sincere desire to administer our competition in probably the most responsible way possible,” said Daniel Kritenbrink, the highest U.S. diplomat for East Asia and the Pacific.
Kurt Campbell, the highest Asia expert on the National Security Council, said “intense competition requires intense diplomacy if we will manage tensions. That’s the only solution to clear up misperceptions, to signal, to speak, and to work together where and when our interests align.”
