U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken boards a plane bound for Berlin at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, June 22, 2021.
Andrew Harnik | Pool | Reuters
BEIJING — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Beijing this weekend, his first visit to China under the Biden administration.
Blinken’s trip was delayed by more than four months, marking a rare high-level meeting between the United States and China at a time of heightened tensions.
The talks themselves are not expected to produce much. But Blinken’s trip to Beijing could help pave the way for more meetings — including a possible one-on-one meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year.
Scott Kennedy, senior advisor and trustee chair for China business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNBC that Blinken’s trip to Beijing was “a potentially important turning point in the relationship between the two countries.”
“Simply enhancing communication is a reasonable goal,” he said. “If (both sides) declare that negotiations are going well, they can schedule additional cabinet-level meetings.”
Exchanges and meetings between the U.S. and China have dried up over the past few years due to the pandemic and political tensions.
The State Department said Blinken would meet with “senior (People’s Republic of China) officials to discuss the importance of maintaining open lines of communication to responsibly manage U.S.-China relations.”
Blinken “will also raise issues of bilateral concern, global and regional affairs, and potential cooperation on shared transnational challenges,” said department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
China’s foreign ministry confirmed the visit but did not provide details of specific meetings.
Expectations for a significant recovery in U.S.-China relations remain low, especially because of Blinken’s upcoming visit.
“Our goal remains to prevent further deterioration of the relationship, rather than articulating and agreeing to a shared vision for the future,” said Drew Thompson, a former U.S. Department of Defense official and current visiting senior fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.
“The rhetoric of the Biden administration is that we will compete where we can; cooperate where we must,” Thompson said. The U.S. challenges it politically, and they’re not willing to cooperate.”
“So I think the government’s goals are unrealistic at this point because of the way Beijing frames its interests in its strategy.”
heightened tension
Geopolitical tensions have been tense for months as the world waits for Blinken to reschedule his trip to China — which could help stabilize relations between the two economic powerhouses.
In February, the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon that it said flew over U.S. airspace. Its appearance forced Blinken to indefinitely postpone his trip to Beijing at the time. Beijing insisted the balloon was an unnamed weather tracker, but it went off course.
Separately, the CEO of Chinese tech giant ByteDance’s TikTok was grilled in March in the US Congress over security concerns. China’s foreign ministry said at the time that it had “never” and “never” required companies to violate local laws and provide data located abroad.
“The U.S. government has repeatedly suppressed and attacked the company with a presumption of guilt, without providing evidence or proof that TikTok is a threat to U.S. national security,” the ministry said. Briefing Transcript.
In May, China said U.S. chipmakers micron Failed security review And prohibit operators of critical infrastructure from buying products from the company.
“The relationship hasn’t been stable since February,” Kennedy said, but he added that the atmosphere in Washington, D.C., where he is based, was “less dark than it used to be” in February and March.
Tensions in Taiwan
“The US needs to fulfill its commitment to the ‘One China’ policy,” Peking University professor Jia Qingguo said on the sidelines of the Caixin Asia Vision conference in Singapore on Tuesday.
“China also doesn’t want to see any surprises between the two militaries,” Jia added.
“It recognizes that even if a military fence is needed between the two countries, it is not enough. The two countries should also build similar fences in their diplomatic and economic relations to avoid confrontation. This will reduce reactive actions and reduce any potential A conflict occurred.” Accident. “
The U.S. and China disagree on a number of other points, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, which Beijing has rejected as an invasion while calling for peace talks.
Hoping for more talks between the U.S. and China
Nevertheless, the two sides are still each other’s largest trading partners in goods.
In May, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met with the US Secretary of Commerce in Washington. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is expected to visit China at an unspecified date.
Looking ahead, Xi may visit the US during the APEC leaders’ summit scheduled for November in San Francisco.
Jia Yueting said expectations should not be too high for any outcome of Blinken’s upcoming meeting with the Chinese, but the important thing is that he will go.
“It’s not common for two big countries in the world to rely on the top leadership to maintain their relationship. It’s actually quite risky,” Jia said. “So it’s important that there are more levels of communication between the two countries.”