(Beijing) China warned on Friday of the risk of “deterioration” of ties with the United States during a visit to Beijing by American Secretary of State Antony Blinken, intended to ease differences between the two leading powers global.
Since Wednesday, Mr. Blinken has been making his second visit to China in less than a year to try to reduce tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
They have clearly diminished since his previous visit in June. But disputes still poison relations, notably US restrictions on exports to China of advanced technologies, including semiconductors.
The social network TikTok is also threatened with a ban in the United States if it does not cut its ties with its Chinese parent company ByteDance. Washington suspects the app is used to spy on Americans, collect personal information and also serve Chinese propaganda.
TikTok categorically denies these allegations.
Before his trip, Antony Blinken had indicated that he would raise delicate issues with his Chinese interlocutors, such as China’s commercial practices, Beijing’s support for Moscow and even Taiwan.
Relations between the two powers “are beginning to stabilize,” said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday, warning however against the persistence of “negative elements”.
“Unreasonable” pressure
“Relationships face all kinds of difficulties. China’s legitimate development rights have been unduly oppressed and our core interests are being challenged,” Wang Yi said, referring to US restrictions in the technology sector.
“Should China and the United States continue to move in the right direction of stability, or return to that of deterioration? », Wang Yi pretended to wonder.
Ahead of discussions with his counterpart, Mr. Blinken affirmed that he would be “very clear, very direct” with him, while saying he hoped for “progress on the issues on which our presidents have agreed.”
The two countries should be as “clear as possible in areas where we have differences, at least to avoid misunderstandings and miscalculations,” Blinken said.
Arriving in China on Wednesday, the head of American diplomacy made a first stop in Shanghai and landed late Thursday afternoon in Beijing.
No meeting between Mr. Blinken and Chinese President Xi Jinping has been announced by Beijing. During the previous visit of the head of American diplomacy in June, the organization of a meeting between the two men was however made public at the last minute.
Taiwan and Ukraine
Mr. Blinken’s trip, which ends this Friday, is a sign of a decline in friction between China and the United States, exacerbated under former President Donald Trump, who once again promises a hard line against Beijing if it wins the November elections.
President Joe Biden, while seeking greater stability between the world’s two largest economies, is however maintaining the pressure.
Mr. Blinken is expected to plead for restraint, as a new president will be inaugurated on May 20 in Taiwan.
The archipelago is all the more likely to appear among the delicate issues likely to be raised as the American Congress gave the green light on Tuesday to a military assistance package of 95 billion dollars intended for Washington’s allies such as Taipei.
He should also raise American concerns about China’s trade practices, which Washington considers anti-competitive, a key issue for President Joe Biden in this election year.
The desire of Joe Biden’s government to collaborate with China stands in stark contrast to efforts to isolate Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
If the Chinese do not directly supply weapons to Russia, Washington has accused them in recent weeks of delivering dual-use equipment and technologies to this country which facilitate its rearmament effort, the most important since Soviet times.