The top US diplomat will travel to the Chinese capital amid ongoing tensions between the two countries. Mr Blinken was originally due to visit Beijing in early February, but postponed the trip after a Chinese balloon was shot down over the US.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Photo: CNN
Mr. Blinken will be the highest-ranking official in the Biden administration to visit China. A top State Department official said on Wednesday that the United States and China had reached “a common conclusion that now is the right time to engage at this level.”
US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said this was an opportunity for “a really important set of engagements that we will have in Beijing at a critical juncture in the relationship that we again hope will, at a minimum, reduce the risk of miscalculation so that the two sides do not go into potential conflict”.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Mr Blinken would meet with “senior Chinese officials” while in Beijing. US officials did not provide details about who those officials were or whether they would include a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Kritenbrink said the agenda will focus on three main goals: Establishing “open and empowered channels of communication to discuss critical challenges, address misperceptions, and prevent miscalculations”; discussing U.S. concerns “on a range of regional and global security issues”; and “exploring possibilities for cooperation on transnational challenges such as climate and global macroeconomic stability.”
Mai Anh (according to CNN)
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