China\u2019s Xi hailed \u201cprogress\u201d after shaking hands with Blinken at the Great Hall of the People
\nBeijing
\nBEIJING: President Xi Jinping on Monday termed the progress achieved in the US-China talks \u201cvery good\u201d as the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken concludes his landmark visit to Beijing on a high note.
\nThe meeting between the two leaders was the final engagement of a rare trip aimed at ensuring disputes between the superpowers do not spiral into conflict.
\nBlinken, the first holder of his post to meet the Chinese leader since 2018, had earlier strode towards Xi with his hand outstretched at the Great Hall of the People, a venue China often uses for greeting heads of state – positive signals in the choreography of diplomacy.
\nThe two delegations then faced each other across a long conference table bedecked with pink lotus flowers, with Xi at the head and Blinken just to his right.
\nTheir roughly 30-minute meeting could help facilitate a summit between Xi and US President Joe Biden later in the year.
\nBiden and Xi last met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia in November, pledging more frequent communication, although ties since then have deteriorated over issues ranging from Taiwan to espionage concerns.
\n\u201cThe two sides agreed to follow through the common understandings President Biden and I had reached in Bali. The two sides have also made progress and reached the agreement on some specific issues. This is very good,\u201d Xi said at the start of the meeting in a video posted online by Chinese state television.
\nDuring the otherwise closed-door talks, Xi said China \u201chopes to see a sound and steady China-US relationship\u201d and believes that the two countries \u201ccan overcome various difficulties\u201d, according to a readout by China\u2019s state news agency Xinhua.
\nHe also urged the US not to \u201churt China\u2019s legitimate rights and interests\u201d.
\nIt was not immediately clear from Xi\u2019s remarks or previous readouts of Blinken\u2019s earlier discussions with China\u2019s top diplomat Wang Yi on Monday and foreign minister Qin Gang on Sunday, exactly what progress had been made.
\nEarlier, Blinken underscored the importance of open communication channels to manage their competition during more than three hours of talks with Wang, which the State Department called \u201cproductive\u201d.
\nDescribing the US-China relationship as being at a low point, Wang said the root cause was the United States\u2019 wrong perception of China.
\n\u201cWe must take a responsible attitude toward the people, history and the world, and reverse the downward spiral of US-China relations,\u201d Wang said during the meeting with Blinken, according to a statement released by China\u2019s foreign ministry.
\nThe lack of regular and open communication channels between the world\u2019s top two economies has sent jitters around the world, and Beijing\u2019s reluctance to engage in regular military-to-military talks with Washington has alarmed China\u2019s neighbours.
\nDuring 7-1\/2 hours of talks with Qin on Sunday, Blinken stressed \u201cthe need to reduce the risk of misperception and miscalculation\u201d, the State Department said.
\nBoth sides emphasised the importance of making it easier for their citizens to visit, and agreed on working to increase passenger flights, which boosted Chinese airline shares.
\nThey also expressed a desire to stabilise bilateral ties despite what one US official called their \u201cprofound\u201d differences, and agreed that Qin would visit Washington to continue the conversation, though no date was announced.
\n\u201cThis is going to be a process of sustained diplomacy,\u201d one senior State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said on Sunday.
\nBlinken\u2019s trip, which was postponed in February after a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over US airspace, is closely followed worldwide as further deterioration of ties could have global implications on financial markets, trade practices and routes and supply chains.
\nTaiwan core issue
\nBeijing\u2019s tone on Taiwan, the democratic island Beijing claims as it own, has been particularly pointed throughout Blinken\u2019s visit. Wang said \u201cChina has no room for compromise or concessions\u201d, according to the Chinese readout.
\nThe United States has long stuck to a policy of \u201cstrategic ambiguity\u201d over whether it would respond militarily to an attack on Taiwan, which Beijing has refused to rule out.
\nWhen asked last year, US President Joe Biden said Washington would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, though aides later said his comments did not reflect a policy departure from the long-standing \u201cone China\u201d policy.
\nUS officials have underscored that the United States does not support Taiwan independence.
\nThe Chinese readout of Sunday\u2019s meetings described them as constructive but made clear that Taiwan is the most important issue, and a potentially dangerous one.
\n\u201cQin Gang pointed out that the Taiwan issue is the core of China\u2019s core interests, the most important issue in Sino-US relations, and the most prominent risk,\u201d Chinese state media quoted Qin as having told the top US diplomat.
\nUS officials have been playing down the prospect of a major breakthrough in talks, but they and analysts expect Blinken\u2019s visit will pave the way for more bilateral meetings in coming months, including possible trips by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China\u2019s Xi hailed \u201cprogress\u201d after shaking hands with Blinken at the Great Hall of the People Beijing BEIJING: President Xi Jinping on Monday termed the progress achieved in the US-China talks \u201cvery good\u201d as the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken concludes his landmark visit to Beijing on a high note. The meeting between the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-338783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n