BEIJING (AP) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has embarked on a high-risk diplomatic trip to China in an attempt to cool rising tensions between the two powers that have put many powers around the world on edge .
Blinken will be the highest-ranking US official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office, and the first secretary of state to make the trip in five years.
However, the prospects for significant progress on the most vexing issues facing the planet’s two largest economies are slim, as ties have already grown increasingly strained in recent years. Animosity and recriminations have steadily increased over a series of disagreements that have implications for global security and stability.
Blinken arrives in Beijing on Sunday for two days of talks. According to US officials, he expects to meet with Qin, Wang on Sunday and possibly Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday.
Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on Blinken’s trip early in a meeting last year in Bali. It came a day after it passed in February, but was delayed by diplomatic and political uproar over the discovery of what the US says was a Chinese spy balloon flying over the US that was shot down .
The list of disagreements and potential sticking points is long: from trade with Taiwan, human rights conditions in China to Hong Kong, as well as Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea to war with Russia in Ukraine
U.S. officials said Friday before Blinken’s departure from Washington that he would elevate each of them, though neither side has shown any inclination to back down on their positions.
Shortly before leaving, Blinken stressed the importance of the United States and China establishing and maintaining better lines of communication. The United States wants to make sure that “the competition we have with China does not come into conflict” because of avoidable misunderstandings, he told reporters.
Biden and Xi had pledged to improve communications “precisely so we can make sure we’re communicating as clearly as possible to avoid potential misunderstandings and miscommunications,” Blinken said Friday.
Xi offered a hint of a possible willingness to ease tensions, saying on Friday that the United States and China can cooperate to “benefit our two countries” in a meeting with Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates.
“I believe that the foundation of China-US relations lies in the people,” Xi told Gates. “In 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.”
Since the cancellation of Blinken’s trip in February, there have been some high-profile 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 top diplomat from China Wang Yi in Vienna in May.
But these have been marked by outbursts of angry rhetoric from both sides about the Taiwan Strait, its broader intentions in the Indo-Pacific, China’s refusal to condemn Russia for its war on Ukraine and the US accusations from Washington that Beijing is trying to increase its global surveillance capabilities, including Cuba.
And earlier this month, China’s defense minister rejected a request from US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for a meeting on the sidelines of a security symposium in Singapore, a sign of continuous discontent.
Austin said Friday he was confident he and his Chinese counterpart would meet “at some point, but we’re not there yet.”
Underscoring the situation, China dismissed a report by a US security firm, which accused China-linked hackers of attacks on hundreds of public agencies, schools and other targets around the world, as “far-fetched and unprofessional”.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman repeated accusations that Washington was carrying out hacking attacks and complained that the cybersecurity industry rarely reports them.
That followed a similar retort earlier in the week when China said Foreign Minister Qin Gang, in a phone call with Blinken, urged the United States to respect “China’s core concerns “, such as the issue of Taiwan’s self-rule, and “stop interfering in China’s problems”. domestic affairs and stop undermining China’s sovereignty, security and development interests in the name of competition.”
Meanwhile, the national security advisers of the United States, Japan and the Philippines held their first joint talks on Friday and agreed to strengthen their defense cooperation, in part to counter China’s growing influence and ambitions.
This coincides with the Biden administration signing a deal with Australia and Britain to provide the first with nuclear-powered submarines, and China moving rapidly to expand its diplomatic presence, particularly in the Indian Ocean and Pacific island nations , where has opened or has opened. plans to open at least five new embassies over the next year.
The deal is part of an 18-month nuclear partnership with the acronym AUKUS, for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Speaking before Blinken’s departure, two US officials played down hopes of major progress, stressing that the trip was intended to restore a sense of calm and normalcy to high-level contacts.
“We come to Beijing with a realistic and confident approach and a sincere desire to manage our competition as responsibly as possible,” said Daniel Kritenbrink, the top US diplomat for East Asia and the Pacific.
Kurt Campbell, the National Security Council’s top Asia expert, said “intense competition requires intense diplomacy if we are to manage tensions. That’s the only way to clear up misperceptions, to signal, to communicate -us and to work together where and when our interests align.”
