2023-06-19 15:51:00
Photo: AFP
Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed the “progress” in unfreezing relations with the United States during a meeting he held with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who began a visit to the Asian power on Sunday to discuss to ease tensions.
The interview came on the second and final day of Blinken’s visit to China, the first in nearly five years. of a secretary of state.
Several issues have clouded the bilateral relationship in recent years, including Washington’s support for the autonomous island of Taiwan, which Beijing considers its own, rivalry in the technological field, the territorial claims of the Asian power in the South China Sea or the treatment of the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority in northwest China.
After a meeting in the morning with the head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi, Blinken was received on Monday afternoon by Xi Jinping at the imposing Palace of the People in Beijing.
“The two sides made progress and found common ground on various specific points,” which were not specified, said Xi Jinping, who considered it a “very good thing,” according to a video broadcast by CCTV public television.
“I hope Secretary Blinken will bring a positive outcome to the stabilization of China-US relations through this visit,” Xi told his interlocutor.
“I hope that Secretary Blinken, through this visit, will bring a positive result to the stabilization of relations between China and the United States” Xi Jinping
In the previous interview with the head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi said that Blinken’s trip “comes at a critical time in relations.”
“It is necessary to choose between dialogue and confrontation, cooperation or conflict”Wang said, encouraging them to return to a “healthy” path in the bilateral relationship and to “work together” so that China and the United States “get along well.”
Wang Yi took the opportunity to reaffirm to Blinken his country’s position on Taiwan.
In recent months, contacts between Washington and the Taiwanese authorities, originating from a pro-independence party, have greatly irritated Beijing, which has responded with large-scale military exercises around the democratically-ruled island.
On this point, Blinken highlighted the concern generated in Washington by these acts of “provocation” in the Taiwan Strait.
Chinese communist power considers Taiwan a rogue island, which it has not managed to reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
“Maintaining national unity remains at the core of China’s fundamental interests,” and “in this matter, China has no room to compromise or compromise,” Wang stressed.
The US Secretary of State was received yesterday by the Chinese Foreign Minister, Qin Gang, ranked below Wang Yi.
A seven and a half hour meeting
The meeting lasted seven and a half hours, longer than expected, and both parties agreed to keep communications open to avoid future conflicts.
After that meeting, both countries said that Qin accepted an offer to visit Washington soon.
The talks on Sunday were “candid, substantive and constructive,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Blinken stressed “the importance of diplomacy and keeping communication channels open on all issues to reduce the risk of misperceptions and miscalculations,” Miller added.
Behind closed doors, Qin told Blinken that US-China ties “are at the lowest point since diplomatic relations were established” in 1979, according to state television CCTV.
“This is not in line with the fundamental interests of these two peoples and the common expectations of the international community,” Qin said in the dialogue with Blinken.
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