Beijing: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is on a two-day visit to China. Antony Blinken began the second and final day of his visit to China with a meeting with a top diplomat. It is being told that today he is likely to meet President Xi Jinping.
Blinken is meeting with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and may meet with President Xi Jinping before returning home. Blinken and Wang both greeted each other and sat down to talk, but did not speak to reporters. Blinken, who arrived in Beijing on a mission to reduce the growing bilateral tension, had extensive talks with his Chinese counterpart Chin Kang for about 6 hours on Sunday.
In the meeting, both sides agreed to continue high-level talks. However, there was no such indication that any progress has been made toward the resolution of the issues on which there is a dispute between the two countries.
Both sides said Chin accepted Blinken’s invitation to visit Washington. China also made it clear that the relations between China and America are at an all-time low. American officials have also said this many times.
According to the US State Department, Blinken stressed the importance of diplomacy and keeping issues open to dialogue to reduce the risk of misperceptions and misjudgment.
Blinken is the first US Secretary of State to visit Beijing in the last 5 years
Blinken is the first high-level US official to visit China since US President Joe Biden took office. He is the first US Secretary of State to visit Beijing in the last 5 years.
A long list of points of disagreement and possible confrontation between the two countries
Despite Blinken’s presence in the Chinese capital, there is little hope of any significant breakthrough on the complex issues between the two largest economies. The list of points of disagreement and potential friction between the two countries is long, ranging from trade with Taiwan, the human rights situation in China and Hong Kong to China’s military presence in the South China Sea, and the Ukraine-Russia war.
Biden and Xi agreed to visit Blinken in Bali last year
Hostilities and accusations between the two countries have increased rapidly due to disagreement on many issues that have an impact on global security and stability. Biden and Xi agreed to visit Blinken at a meeting in Bali last year. However, in February, Blinken canceled his trip to China after an alleged Chinese spy balloon was spotted in US airspace.
