US Secretary of State visits China for the first time since balloon incident

According to Reuters , the plane carrying US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed at the airport in Beijing on the morning of June 18 (local time), beginning a two-day visit to China.

This is the first visit by the top US diplomat to China since Mr. Mike Pompeo visited Beijing in October 2018. Mr. Blinken postponed his visit to Beijing in February amid tensions between the two countries after the US shot down a Chinese balloon off the coast of South Carolina.

According to the Guardian , neither the US nor China expects any breakthroughs during Mr Blinken's two-day visit, while the world's two largest economies disagree on a range of issues such as trade, technology and regional security.

US Secretary of State visits China for the first time since balloon incident - 1 — Secretary of State Blinken (left) leaves the plane at the airport in Beijing on the morning of June 18. (Photo: Reuters).

As scheduled, US Secretary of State Blinken will meet with Politburo member, Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Wang Yi, and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. There is currently no information on whether Mr. Blinken will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping or not.

Observers expect Mr. Blinken's visit to pave the way for more bilateral meetings in the coming months, including possible trips by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

The trips could set the stage for meetings between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping at multilateral summits later this year.

Earlier, on June 17, Mr. Biden said he hoped to meet President Xi Jinping in the next few months.

However, White House officials previously said the US did not have high expectations for the visit.

"Secretary Blinken will explain the US policy of pursuing a diplomatic path to manage tensions between the world's two largest economies. We do not expect the visit to bring any breakthrough in bilateral relations with China," US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said at a press conference in Japan on June 16.

US-China relations have deteriorated in recent years, particularly over Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory awaiting reunification. The two countries have also disagreed over China’s increasingly assertive actions in the region.

The two sides have since taken steps to manage tensions, including a meeting between Sullivan and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in Austria last month. President Joe Biden said in May that he believed US-China relations would soon thaw.

However, a series of recent moves have escalated tensions. In late May, Washington accused Chinese fighter jets of “unnecessarily aggressive actions” when they approached and intercepted a US reconnaissance aircraft operating over the East Sea.

Meanwhile, Beijing said that the US's frequent dispatch of warships and aircraft to conduct surveillance close to China "seriously harms national security" and that "US provocative and dangerous activities are the cause of maritime security problems."

Tra Khanh (Source: Reuters; Guardian)

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