US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrives in Beijing informed Sunday June 18, Reuters. He became the most senior US official to visit China since 2018. Is it worth waiting for breakthroughs after Blinken’s visit to China – in Russian media material.
The last time a US Secretary of State visited China was exactly five years ago. Then, this post was occupied by Mike Pompeo, who advocated an uncompromising confrontation with China in the last years of Donald Trump’s presidency, Remarks AFP.
Anthony Blinken was scheduled to visit China in February 2023, but the US side canceled the trip after the incident with the detection of a Chinese balloon in the sky over the United States, which Washington considered to be a threat. ‘spying. The Secretary of State was given the task of reviving dialogue on global issues such as the threat to the environment and the maintenance of global macroeconomic stability, as well as to raise the sensitive issue of Taiwan for Beijing.
Blinken will be in Beijing for two days, until Monday, June 19. The secretary of state is expected to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and the head of the Foreign Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee Wang Yi, and possibly also Chinese President Xi Jinping.
As Blinken assured, while in China he will try to avoid “miscalculations” and “manage responsibly” relations with China.
“Intense competition requires sustained diplomacy to ensure that competition does not escalate into confrontation or conflict,” said the Secretary of State, Friday, June 16, in Washington (quote AFP).
Blinken’s visit to Beijing could “set the stage” for a meeting between US and Chinese leaders, Reuters suggests. Biden said yesterday he hoped to meet Xi Jinping in the coming months.
Leah Millis/Pool Photo via AP
Disagreements between the United States and China
Neither side expects breakthroughs as the countries are at odds on several issues at once, including trade, technology and the Taiwan crisis, AFP notes. At the same time, Beijing and Washington express their interest in achieving greater stability in their rhetoric. In particular, Blinken argued that the main objective of negotiations with China is to reduce the level of risk associated with tensions between the United States and China.
The Chinese side was particularly indignant at the restrictions on the export of American computer chips imposed by American President Joe Biden, recalls AFP. Such a measure in Washington was explained by fears that semiconductors would be used in the military sphere, as well as by the desire to maintain superiority in the most advanced electronic technologies. In response, China banned the import of memory chips from the largest US manufacturer Micron.
Among other things, Blinken is expected to speak in Beijing on restricting exports of chemical components produced in China and shipped to Latin America, from which fentanyl is produced. An overdose of this synthetic opioid kills tens of thousands of Americans each year. In recent years, deaths from fentanyl overdoses in the United States have quadrupled.
“We will discuss this issue directly, and we will seek measures to reduce the magnitude of the problem,” said an official accompanying Blinken.
In May, the Biden administration imposed sanctions on 17 individuals and entities based in China and Mexico. Washington accused them of being involved in the production of counterfeit fentanyl pills.
In turn, the official representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Wang Wenbin, on the eve of Blinken’s visit, said that the United States should “respect China’s core interests” and “refuse the illusion of an interaction ‘with Beijing’ from a position of strength.”
“The United States should respect China’s concerns, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, and stop undermining China’s sovereignty, security and development interests in the name of competition,” he said. said Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang.
The previous high-level meeting between the United States and China was held in May in Vienna.
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