On June 18, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang began talks with his US counterpart Antony Blinken in Beijing.
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| US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gets off his plane at the airport in Beijing on June 18. (Source: Reuters) |
As planned, during the two-day visit (June 18-19), Mr. Blinken will meet with Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Wang Yi, and possibly Chinese President Xi Jinping, to discuss establishing open and sustainable communication channels to ensure that strategic competition between the two countries does not fall into a spiral of conflict.
Mr. Blinken had planned to visit China in February, but had to abruptly postpone it after a Chinese balloon flew over US airspace and was subsequently shot down.
Reuters quoted a senior US State Department official as saying during Secretary of State Blinken's refueling stop in Tokyo en route to Beijing that the US and China both recognized the need for high-level communication channels.
Secretary of State Blinken himself, at a press conference on June 16 ahead of the visit, also listed three main goals: establishing a crisis management mechanism, promoting interests, clarifying concerns of the US and its allies, and exploring areas of potential cooperation.
“If we want to ensure that competition with China does not turn into conflict, the place to start is communication,” Mr. Blinken said.
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