(Washington) The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken set himself three objectives on Friday for his next trip to China: dialogue, challenge and find common ground.
The trip is to “open up direct lines of communication so that our two countries can manage our relationship responsibly, including addressing some challenges and misperceptions and avoiding miscalculations,” Blinken said during the meeting. a press conference alongside his Singaporean counterpart, Vivian Balakrishnan.
The American secretary of state must leave Washington in the evening in order to go to Beijing Sunday and Monday for a series of meetings with Chinese officials.
He also intends to “advance the interests and values of the United States […] including by directly and sincerely conveying our concerns on a number of topics”.
“Thirdly, it is about exploring the potential for cooperation” with Beijing to meet global challenges such as climate change or in the fight against synthetic drugs.
“Intense competition requires intense diplomacy to ensure that it does not escalate into confrontation or conflict,” he added, noting that “the world expects the United States and China are cooperating”.
Echoing this, his counterpart in Singapore called the Sino-American relationship the “challenge of the century”.
“The rest of the world will be watching you. We hope, and I think, that you will be able to manage your differences, ”he said.
Questioned by a journalist, Mr. Blinken assured that he would raise with the Chinese authorities the question of the detention of American citizens in China.
” Harassment ”
The points of contention between the two powers, which engage in fierce competition, are numerous, from the question of Taiwan to Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea through the battle over electronic chips.
Thursday, a report from a subsidiary of Google revealed that a group of cyberattackers, linked to the Chinese state, is responsible for a vast campaign of computer espionage aimed in particular at government agencies in several countries.
Mr. Blinken will be the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit China since 2018.
Initially scheduled for February, his visit was canceled in extremis due to the incident of the Chinese balloon having flown over the territory of the United States before being shot down by the American army.
It comes in the wake of the meeting last November between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Indonesia.
For his part, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Friday called on the United States to work to improve relations between the two countries, according to the New China Agency.
“The United States sees China as its “main rival” and as the challenge with the “most significant geopolitical consequences”. This is a strategic error in judgement,” he said.
He also felt that US demands should not go against China’s legitimate right to develop.
“It is not ‘responsible competition’ but irresponsible harassment” which will only push the two countries “towards confrontation”, he denounced.
In the meantime, some of the biggest American bosses are making the trip to Beijing, from Elon Musk to Bill Gates – received on Friday by Xi Jinping – via Tim Cook, the general manager of Apple.