US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Chinese President Xi Jinping today in Beijing.
The United States and China are trying to mend their inflamed relationship, but it won’t be easy.
This message went out to the world on Monday, when the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met the president of China Xi Jinping in Beijing.
Relations between the United States and China have deteriorated significantly in recent years.
Rock bottom was reached in February, when the United States shot down a Chinese reconnaissance balloon that had penetrated its airspace, and Foreign Minister Blinken canceled his planned trip to China at the time.
Today in Beijing, both countries emphasized the importance of continuing to communicate and discuss issues openly.
In practice, however, China and the United States strongly disagree on, for example, the status of Taiwan, human rights, control of the South China Sea, and Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
These disagreements have global importance in the field of economy and security.
– The United States and China have an obligation and responsibility to take care of their relationship, Foreign Minister Blinken commented to President Xi.
According to the Chinese president, there has also been some kind of rapprochement between the two countries.
– Progress has also been seen between the parties and an agreement has been reached on some specific issues, Xi commented without specifying what was actually agreed upon.
Blinken: communication between the armed forces needs to be improved
Blinken is the highest-ranking US decision-maker to have a visiting Chinese president Joe Biden rise to power.
On Monday, he met not only the president but also the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chinese Communist Party To Wang Yi.
Even before the visit, both the American and Chinese diplomats had exceeded expectations related to the meeting between the two countries. At the press conference, Blinken characterized the goals of the United States in the negotiations as “limited”.
The foreign minister said that he had brought up the communication between the countries’ armed forces repeatedly. The armed forces of the United States and China have not been in direct contact with each other for years.
– It is absolutely important that we have such connections, Blinken said.
With the armed forces’ direct connections, it is possible to quickly warn the other side of, for example, various suddenly arising dangerous situations. Communication is also believed to reduce the possibility of various misunderstandings.
According to China, economic sanctions imposed by the United States are one of the reasons that prevent the armed forces from maintaining contact.
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu was placed on the US sanctions list in 2018 after Beijing bought weapons and equipment from a Russian company.
Sources: AP, Reuters