Antony Blinken begins visit to China due to delayed spy balloon | United States foreign policy

Anthony Blinken, the US secretary of state, arrived in China on Sunday in the highest level by a US official in nearly five years — one that was set to happen four months earlier, until a Chinese spy balloon was caught flying over US soil.

Neither side expects breakthroughs during Blinken’s two-day visit, as the world’s two largest economies are at loggerheads on a range of issues such as trade, technology and regional security.

The two countries have increasingly expressed interest in seeking greater stability and seeing a narrow window before next year’s elections in both the United States and Taiwan, the self-governing democracy that Beijing has not ruled out taking by force.

After a friendly summit between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in Bali in November, Blinken’s subsequent visit to China was abruptly postponed because of the Chinese spy balloon affair that began to unfold in January.

Speaking in the US capital before his departure, Blinken said he would seek to “responsibly manage our relationship” by finding ways to avoid “miscalculations” between countries.

“Intense competition requires sustained diplomacy to ensure that competition does not veer into confrontation or conflict,” he said.

Blinken was speaking alongside Singapore’s foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, who said the region wants the United States to remain a power and find ways to coexist with a rising China.

Balakrishnan said that “Blinken’s journey is necessary, but not sufficient”. There are fundamental differences in outlook and values. And it takes time to build mutual respect and strategic trust.”

As part of the Biden administration’s focus on keeping allies close, Blinken spoke by phone with counterparts from both Japan and South Korea during his 20-hour trans-Pacific trip.

Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, traveled separately to Tokyo for trilateral meetings involving Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.

In recent months, the United States has reached agreements on troop deployments in southern Japan and northern Philippines, both of which are strategically close to Taiwan.

And Beijing held major military exercises around Taiwan in August that were seen as an exercise for an invasion, following a visit by Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the US House of Representatives.

In April, China launched three days of war games after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen visited the United States and met with current President Kevin McCarthy.

Prior to Blinken’s visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the United States needed to “respect China’s fundamental concerns” and work with Beijing.

The United States should abandon the illusion of dealing with China “from a position of strength.” China and the United States should develop relations on the basis of mutual respect and equality, respecting differences in history, culture, social system and development path.”

Blinken is the first senior US diplomat to visit Beijing since a brief stop in 2018 by his predecessor Mike Pompeo, who advocated confronting China in the final years of Donald Trump’s presidency.

The Biden administration has maintained Trump’s hard line in practice, if not his tone, and has gone further in areas, including working to ban exports to China of advanced semiconductors with military uses.

Unlike Trump, who is running for president again, the Biden administration has said it is willing to work with China on narrow areas of cooperation such as climate — with Beijing sweating in record temperatures in mid-June.

Each side has priorities, said Danny Russell, who was the chief diplomat for East Asia during Barack Obama’s second term — with China seeking to thwart additional US restrictions on technology or support for Taiwan, and the US anxious to prevent an incident that could spiral downward. in a military confrontation.

Blinken’s brief visit will not resolve any of the big issues in the US-China relationship or even necessarily the minor ones. Russell, who is now vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, said, “Neither side will be prevented from continuing their competitive agendas.

“But his visit may restart much-needed direct dialogue and send a signal that both countries are moving from angry rhetoric on the press podium to sober discussions behind closed doors.”

Xi offered a hint of a possible willingness to reduce tensions, saying in a meeting with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on Friday that the United States and China could cooperate “for the benefit of our two countries.”

“I believe the foundation of China-US relations lies in the people,” Xi told Gates. “With the current global situation, we can carry out various activities that benefit our countries, the people of our countries, and the entire human race.”

Biden told White House reporters on Saturday that he “hopes that over the next several months, I will meet with Xi again and talk about the legitimate differences we have, but also how … to live with them.” Opportunities may come at the G-20 leaders meeting in September in New Delhi and at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November in San Francisco hosted by the United States.

With AFP and Reuters