(Washington) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is going to China this weekend where he intends to initiate a diplomatic thaw with Beijing and call for “responsible management” of tensions between the two great powers.
“Mr. Blinken will meet with senior Chinese officials there and discuss the importance of maintaining open lines of communication in order to responsibly manage the China-US relationship,” a State Department statement said Wednesday confirming the highly anticipated trip. of the head of the American diplomacy.
Bilateral relations remain tense due to several issues: the ties between the United States and Taiwan, the rivalry in technologies, trade or even Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea.
This visit had been postponed in February after the incursion of a Chinese balloon into the airspace of the United States.
“Since the beginning of the year, China-US relations have faced new difficulties and challenges. It is clear whose responsibility it is,” Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told Blinken in a phone call on Wednesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
The minister “explained China’s solemn position on the question of Taiwan”, the main point of friction between the two powers, as well as on “other essential concerns” of Beijing, underlines the press release.
China considers Taiwan to be one of its provinces, which it has yet to successfully reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Beijing is thus opposed to any official link between foreign countries and the Taiwanese authorities. The Asian giant accuses the United States of working in this direction in defiance of their past commitments.
“calculation errors”
“Qin Gang stressed that the United States should respect (China’s concerns), stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, and stop undermining China’s sovereignty, security and to China’s development interests,” the statement from Beijing said.
On the Washington side, the account of the phone call was a little more optimistic.
Antony Blinken spoke of “the importance of keeping lines of communication open to responsibly manage the relationship between the United States and Beijing in order to avoid miscalculations and conflicts,” Matthew Miller said in a statement. State Department spokesman.
The US Secretary of State also “made it clear that the United States will continue to use its diplomatic engagements to raise concerns as well as potential areas of cooperation,” Miller added.
Last November, for the first time since Joe Biden entered the White House, the American president and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met at the G20 summit in Indonesia.
The two leaders had agreed to cooperate on certain issues during their discussions.
First since 2018
Relations between the two powers were strained again in February after a Chinese balloon flew over American territory.
The American authorities had then presented it as a “spy” aircraft, while Beijing had assured that it was a meteorological craft having deviated from its trajectory.
Under pressure, Antony Blinken immediately canceled his trip to China at the last minute.
However, both countries have recently sought to play the appeasement card.
For example, a closed-door meeting was held in May in Vienna between the National Security Advisor of the White House, Jake Sullivan, and the most senior official of diplomacy within the Chinese apparatus, Wang Yi.
“China hopes that the United States […] will work with China to effectively manage differences, promote exchanges and cooperation, so as to stabilize China-US relations and bring them back to the path of healthy and steady development,” Qin Gang told Antony Blinken on Wednesday. .
Blinken’s visit this weekend will be the first visit by a US secretary of state to China since his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, traveled in October 2018.