President Xi Jinping receives US Secretary of State Blinken in Beijing.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and top US diplomat Antony Blinken met in Beijing on June 19, concluding a series of discussions aimed at easing tensions between the two superpowers while still failing to resolve the most contentious issues between them.

The meeting followed a more than three-hour meeting between Mr. Blinken and Mr. Wang Yi, China's top foreign policy official.

This was the first meeting between the two leaders in over seven months. Prior to this, Mr. Blinken was also present when Mr. Xi met with his American counterpart Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali in November 2022.

Mr. Blinken was the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit Beijing in five years, and his talks with senior Chinese officials were seen as a crucial test to see what measures the two sides could take to ease tensions.

The uncertainty surrounding whether Xi and Blinken would meet during the two-day visit further highlighted the strained relationship between the U.S. and China. The meeting was only publicly announced by the U.S. side about an hour before it took place.

Blinken's visit to China was planned for February, following a meeting between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia in November 2022, but was canceled due to the hot air balloon incident. Photo: CNN

The two global powers are increasingly at odds over a range of issues, from Beijing's close ties with Moscow to U.S. efforts to restrict the sale of advanced technologies to China.

A key concern among those worries is repairing the communication lines that have been broken over the past year, particularly when it comes to high-level military exchanges, which Washington fears could quickly escalate into conflict.

Earlier this year, a Chinese balloon was spotted hovering over sensitive military sites before being shot down by a U.S. fighter jet, pushing relations between the two countries to a new low and leading to Blinken canceling his visit to Beijing.

The visit in early February was seen as a follow-up to the friendly meeting between Biden and Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in November 2022.

The first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders was seen as a significant step in restoring certain lines of communication that Beijing had severed last year following then-Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.

Both the US and China have lowered expectations for a major breakthrough during Blinken's visit .

Nguyen Tuyet (Based on CNN, SCMP, Washington Post)

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/chu-tich-tap-can-binh-tiep-ngoai-truong-my-blinken-tai-bac-kinh-a613291.html