A meeting between US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Chinese leader Xi Jinping ended in Beijing, ABC News reports .
Before the closed part of the meeting, Xi Jinping stressed the importance of interaction between the two countries and expressed the hope that the visit of the US Secretary of State "will make a positive contribution" to this matter. Blinken, in turn, told reporters before the meeting about "frank and constructive conversations" with other Chinese officials.
On Sunday, June 18, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken paid an official visit to China. He held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, head of Chinese diplomacy Wang Yi and Xi Jinping.
After the meeting with Blinken, Qin Gang, although he stated that China adheres to the strategy of building stable and predictable relations with the United States, noted that before Blinken's visit, they "were at the lowest point since the establishment of diplomatic communication between the countries." Approximately the same thesis was put forward by Wang Yi.
A sinologist, an employee of the University of Leipzig, Aleksey Chigadaev, believes that these are not just words and that “everything is bad” in relations between countries:
“The trade war initiated by the US has actually been going on since the beginning of 2018. Over the past five years, US-China relations have steadily deteriorated across the board. And here it is not so much the format of relationships or rhetoric that is important, but the decrease in the quality of communication channels or their complete disappearance.
At the same time, Chigadaev believes that both sides are aware of what mutual misunderstanding leads to:
“The parties understand that they have indeed come very close to the risk of military escalation. Not because they want war or see war as a way to resolve accumulated problems. And again, due to the lack of normal communication channels, including between the military of the two countries. The packages of mutual wishes and demands of the two countries are huge, and both Russia and Ukraine are far from being in the top ten in them. Customs duties, economic sanctions, the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking – a lot of things are on the table.
Blinken's visit (which was supposed to take place back in February) is only the first step in unfreezing bilateral relations. There will be no declarations and joint statements – this is just the beginning of a very long road to normalization. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees that these talks will improve bilateral relations either.”
According to Chigadaev, the Chinese authorities are not ready for a military confrontation with the United States:
“The latest leaks from official sources of the PRC on the state of the banking sector, the financial sector indicate that the system simply cannot withstand this. The Chinese economy is too tied to the US, and the US is too tied to the PRC: in the political plane, you can talk about anything, but against the backdrop of a trade war, trade between China and the US is growing steadily. According to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), by the end of 2022, the American economy imported goods from China for $536.75 billion and exported goods to China for $153.84 billion. Thus, US foreign trade with China grew to $690.59 billion for 2022, which was a new historical record.
On October 27, 2022, the US Department of Defense released the 2022 US National Defense Strategy (NDS). It said: "PRC poses the most serious and systemic challenge, while Russia poses acute threats – both to vital US national interests abroad and within the United States." Thus, China took a defensive position: "Let's live together, we are for economic cooperation, not for war."
Chigadaev believes that Xi Jinping, as the leader of China, has two goals:
“Xi has two goals – global and local. The world has changed dramatically since the rules for economic cooperation were written. China has been and remains the beneficiary of current international financial institutions, but would like to "rethink" these rules, based on the fact that the world has already changed. There is a bit of slyness in this: China wants equal rights for everyone, but it is obvious that the size of the Chinese economy creates a huge advantage by default.”
After the meeting, Xi Jinping said that progress had been made in US-China relations during the talks. In addition, he noted that China hopes for a "strong and lasting relationship" between the two countries, but emphasized that the US "should not hurt the legitimate rights and interests of China," referring to the situation with Taiwan. The meeting between Xi Jinping and Blinken lasted 30 minutes.
