US-China relations: Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit confirmed after phone call with China's Qin Gang
South China Morning Post
4 min read
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Beijing on Sunday and Monday, the two sides have confirmed.
While in Beijing, Blinken will meet senior officials to discuss the importance of maintaining open lines of communication to responsibly manage the relationship, the State Department said.
He will also raise bilateral issues of concern, global and regional matters, and potential cooperation on shared transnational challenges, spokesman Matthew Miller said.
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It will be the latest high-level exchange between the two sides in recent weeks amid a US push for reengagement.
Earlier this year Blinken cancelled a planned visit to China after an alleged Chinese spy balloon was shot down over US airspace in February.
The Chinese foreign ministry also confirmed the visit would go ahead, hours after a phone call on Wednesday between Blinken and Qin Gang, who told him the US should "show respect" and stop undermining China's sovereignty, security and development interests.
"I hope that the US side will take practical actions to implement the important consensus of the meeting between the two heads of state in Bali, move in the same direction as the Chinese side, effectively manage differences, promote exchanges and cooperation, and promote the stabilisation of China-US relations," Qin said, according to a Chinese foreign ministry readout of the call.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang called on the US to take "practical actions" to improve relations. Photo: Xinhua alt=Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang called on the US to take "practical actions" to improve relations. Photo: Xinhua>
Qin was referring to a meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden at the Group of 20 summit in Bali in November where they agreed to work to improve relations.
During Wednesday's phone call, Qin repeated Beijing's "stern position" on its core concerns, such as Taiwan, according to the Chinese readout.
He also urged Washington to "show respect, stop interfering in China's internal affairs and stop undermining China's sovereignty, security and development interests in the name of competition".
Beijing sees self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory and regards the issue as "the core of the core interests".
Countries that have diplomatic ties with Beijing, including the US, acknowledge the existence of the one-China principle that holds Taiwan to be part of China, but some may not explicitly agree with it.
Bilateral relations plummeted in August when then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei. The visit angered Beijing, which saw it as a violation of its sovereignty. Tensions worsened in April when new US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Tsai in California.
On Wednesday, Blinken "discussed the importance of maintaining open lines of communication to responsibly manage the US-PRC relationship to avoid miscalculation and conflict, [and] addressed a range of bilateral and global issues", according to Miller.
According to the Chinese readout, Qin told Blinken that the responsibility for new difficulties and challenges in the relationship since the start of the year was "clear".
He said Beijing had always followed the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation in handling relations with Washington.
Despite the balloon incident and other disputes, there have been signs of a thaw in relations in recent months, with more high-level engagement between the two powers.
In May, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China's top diplomat Wang Yi held what both sides described as "candid, substantive and constructive discussions" on Taiwan and Russia's war in Ukraine, over the course of two days in Vienna.
But China declined a face-to-face meeting between defence minister Li Shangfu and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin at Asia's top security forum, the Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore earlier this month.
The Chinese delegation responded by saying that Austin had "made several false accusations" in his remarks and Washington should not tell China what to do.
