2023-06-19 12:31:03
Will this meeting reduce the tension between the two great powers? US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, currently in China, began his talks in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday.
The meeting, confirmed at the last minute by the official New China news agency, comes on the second and last day of Antony Blinken’s visit. A first in nearly five years for an American Secretary of State. The last to make a trip to China was his predecessor Mike Pompeo, in October 2018.
“Both sides have made progress and reached common ground on some specific points,” Xi Jinping said, calling the progress “a good thing.” “I hope that through this visit, Secretary of State Blinken will bring a positive result to the stabilization of relations between China and the United States. »
Beyond the very thorny issue of ties between the United States and Taiwan, an island claimed by Beijing and at the heart of the disputes between the two powers, bilateral relations remain tense on a large number of issues.
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Among them, the rivalry in technologies, the American sanctions targeting the Chinese digital giants, trade, the treatment of the Muslim minority of the Uyghurs in China or even the Chinese claims in the South China Sea.
“No compromise” on Taiwan
On Monday morning, the Chinese Communist Party’s top official for diplomacy, Wang Yi, told Antony Blinken that China and the United States had to choose between “cooperation or conflict”. “The Secretary of State’s trip to Beijing comes at a critical time in Sino-American relations,” Wang Yi told his interlocutor, according to Chinese television CCTV.
Wang Yi also strongly reaffirmed his country’s position on the Taiwan issue, in the face of what Beijing perceives as a continuous rapprochement in recent years between Washington and the Taiwanese authorities, from a pro-independence party. 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.
“Maintaining national unity is always at the heart of China’s fundamental interests” and “on this issue, China will not make any compromises or concessions,” Wang Yi told Antony Blinken.
Links “at the bottom”
On Sunday, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang received his counterpart. The two men agreed to maintain communication between them in order to avoid any conflict. Qin Gang should in turn pay a visit to the United States, on a date yet to be determined.
Antony Blinken also underlined “the importance of diplomacy and of maintaining open channels of communication on all issues in order to reduce the risk of misperception and miscalculation”.
The Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs had deplored to his American counterpart that Beijing-Washington ties are “at their lowest” since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1979, according to Chinese diplomacy. “This is not in line with the fundamental interests of our two peoples, nor with the common expectations of the international community. »
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