US Secretary of State Blinken, who arrived in China, met Chinese Foreign Minister Kang

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who arrived in Beijing on a mission to ease rising bilateral tensions, on Sunday held wide-ranging talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on a range of issues, including the Taiwan and Ukraine wars. Blinken arrived here this morning and held long talks with Kang apart from attending a state dinner. Blinken’s two-day visit to Beijing comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington and his meeting with US President Joe Biden on June 22. The talks are expected to deepen defense cooperation and strengthen the Quad alliance of the US, India, Australia and Japan. China, however, alleges that its aim is to stop it. Ahead of Blinken’s visit to Beijing, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Modi’s visit to Washington is expected to be a “transformational moment” in US-India relations and played down the US Secretary of State’s visit to Beijing.

“Secretary Blinken’s visit to China will be an important event, but it may not be the most important event next week when it comes to American foreign policy,” Sullivan told reporters in Tokyo on June 16. Blinken’s visit is largely seen as an effort to keep the channels of communication open between Washington and Beijing, so that bilateral relations can be “responsibly managed”. Analysts say the visit signals a desire on both sides to restore ties, although they have not been overly enthusiastic about its chances of success, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. There has been no comment on the talks from either side so far. Before leaving for Beijing on Saturday, Blinken said one of his goals was to establish “open and forceful communication” with the Chinese paper.

He said he would “speak directly and frankly about a number of issues of (America’s) very real concern”. “Intense competition requires constant diplomacy to ensure that competition does not turn into confrontation or conflict,” he added. 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 five years. Ahead of his trip, Blinken held a telephone conversation with Kang on Wednesday, during which they shared their concerns over each other’s policies. In February, Blinken canceled a trip to China after an alleged Chinese spy balloon was spotted in US airspace. Kang told Blinken that the US should respect China’s position on the Taiwan question, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, and stop undermining China’s sovereignty, security and development interests in the name of competition. China claims the self-governing island of Taiwan as part of its mainland.

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