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, ending a series of talks aimed at easing tensions between the two superpowers while leaving unresolved their most contentious issues.

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

This is the first meeting between the two leaders in more than seven months. Previously, Mr. Blinken was also present when Mr. Xi met his US counterpart Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali in November 2022.

Mr Blinken is the first US secretary of state to visit Beijing in five years, and his talks with senior Chinese officials are seen as a key test of whether the two sides can come up with measures to ease the relationship.

The uncertainty surrounding whether Xi and Blinken will meet during the two-day visit underscores the strained relationship between the US and China, with the meeting only publicly announced about an hour before it takes place.

Mr. Blinken's visit to China was scheduled to take place in February, after 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 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 US efforts to limit the sale of advanced technologies to China.

Key among those concerns is repairing lines of communication that have been broken over the past year, especially when it comes to high-level military exchanges, leaving Washington concerned that a mistake or incident could quickly lead to conflict.

Earlier this year, a Chinese balloon was spotted hovering over sensitive military sites before being shot down by a US fighter jet, sending relations between the two countries to a new low and leading Mr Blinken to cancel a visit to Beijing.

The visit in early February was expected to be a follow-up to a friendly meeting between Mr Biden and Mr 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 crucial step in restoring certain lines of communication that Beijing severed last year, following a visit to Taiwan by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

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

Nguyen Tuyet (According to CNN, SCMP, Washington Post)

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