The U.S. and China agreed to boost dialog but tensions lingered after Secretary of State Antony Blinken became the highest-level American official to visit to Beijing in five years, as the world\u2019s largest economies seek to put frayed ties on more stable footing. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy hope and expectation is we\u2019ll have better communications, better engagement going forward,\u201d Blinken told reporters in Beijing in a press conference that capped two days of meetings in Beijing, including with President Xi Jinping. Still, he said the U.S. has \u201cno illusions about the challenges of managing this relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chinese leader earlier had rare praise for Blinken\u2019s visit, saying it was \u201cvery good\u201d that their countries made progress on stabilizing the relationship. He also citied \u201cagreements on some specific issues,\u201d but didn\u2019t elaborate in comments shown on state TV.<\/p>\n
While the U.S. diplomat\u2019s visit may have helped get ties back on track, there was no sign that his meetings helped to resolve major differences on a range of issues that divide the two countries. There was no progress on restoring direct contacts between the two countries\u2019 militaries, something the U.S. has been eager for amid increasing tensions between forces around Taiwan and elsewhere. <\/p>\n
Taiwan Security<\/p>\n
The U.S. and China also remain at odds over trade and intellectual-property disputes, human rights concerns, China\u2019s support for Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine and U.S. limits on advanced technology. President Joe Biden also faces increased hawkishness back home, as evinced by an announcement Monday that four U.S. lawmakers will travel to Detroit in a bid to push automaters Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. to reduce their supply-chain exposure to China.<\/p>\n
Shortly after Blinken\u2019s plane left Beijing, China\u2019s Foreign Ministry also took a downbeat tone, playing down the Xi meeting as purely a matter of \u201ccourtesy\u201d and laying the blame on the U.S. for the frictions, according to state TV. <\/p>\n
Still, while tensions remained close to the surface and specific agreements were sparse, the upbeat words from Xi and Blinken suggest that both sides are ready to turn back the clock to November. At that time, the two countries\u2019 leaders pledged to improve relations during a meeting in Indonesia. That process was derailed in February after an alleged Chinese spy balloon floated through U.S. air space, causing Blinken to cancel a trip to Beijing and bringing U.S.-China relations to their lowest point in decades.<\/p>\n
Even the otherwise-downbeat statement from China\u2019s Foreign Ministry after the visit highlighted returning to the agreements the leaders reached in Indonesia as the \u201cmost important\u201d result.<\/p>\n
Blinken\u2019s meeting with Xi lays the groundwork for in-person talks between the two countries\u2019 leaders later this year. On Sunday, Foreign Minister Qin Gang accepted an invitation to visit Washington, the State Department said, after 7 1\/2 hours of talks with Blinken that both sides described as \u201cproductive\u201d and \u201ccandid.\u201d <\/p>\n
China has reasons to want to cool tensions. Beijing is facing an increasingly challenging geopolitical landscape, as the U.S. blocks China\u2019s access to high-tech chips to thwart its military progress and puts pressure on Xi to condemn Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. Geopolitical strains are also deterring foreign investment as China\u2019s economy faces domestic headwinds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe economy in China is not in great shape,\u201d George Magnus, a research associate at Oxford University\u2019s China Centre, told Bloomberg TV. \u201cHe wants to appeal and be seen to be constructive to Global South partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leaders\u2019 Meeting<\/p>\n
In his meeting with Blinken, Wang Yi, China\u2019s top foreign policy official blasted \u201cillegal\u201d U.S. sanctions and putting the blame for worsening ties on Washington, which he said had misunderstood China, according to China\u2019s Foreign Ministry. The U.S. called it a \u201ccandid and productive discussion\u201d – diplomat-speak for a tough conversation. <\/p>\n
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu has declined to meet with his U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin until Washington lifts sanctions against him. The U.S. and Chinese militaries recently had two confrontations between naval vessels and jets in the region, which the Pentagon characterized as \u201cdangerous.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cBlinken sets the stage for future interactions between different levels of government, the business community and academia and research,\u201d said Henry Wang, founder of the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing. \u201cHe\u2019s brought a period of stabilization, of easing tensions for at least the second half of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blinken\u2019s visit became one of the top ten trending topics on China\u2019s Twitter-like Weibo after Xi\u2019s comments on Monday afternoon, with related hashtags getting millions of views. Under photos of Xi shaking hands with Blinken, some users called for U.S.-China relations to \u201creturn to the right track.\u201d<\/p>\n
That response was in contrast to the beginning of Blinken\u2019s visit, when Weibo users pointed out the U.S. official was greeted by red lines on the tarmac rather than a red carpet \u2014 a reference to China\u2019s core concerns on Taiwan and other issues \u2014 and Chinese state media gave his trip muted coverage.<\/p>\n
But after the Xi meeting, the official Xinhua news agency posted an item highlighting the lotus blossoms that decorated the table at the session, noting that the Chinese word for the flowers has the same pronunciation as the character for \u201ccooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blinken underlined that the U.S. is seeking to \u201cde-risk\u201d its relationship with China but isn\u2019t seeking to \u201cde-couple\u201d from its largest trading partner or contain its economic rise. He portrayed the limits the U.S. has imposed on technology exports to China as narrowly focused on sensitive national security areas, not sweeping limits. <\/p>\n
Beijing so far doesn\u2019t appear to have been convinced.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no illusions about the challenges of managing this relationship,\u201d Blinken said. \u201cThere are many issues on which we profoundly even vehemently disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n
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