China, US see progress in Blinken visit but close no gaps

Beijing, China (AFP):

Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Monday he saw headway in the strained relationship with the United States on a rare visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, but the rival powers remained at odds over their core disputes.

In a symbolic sign of lowering the temperature after soaring tensions, President Xi received Blinken in the vast Great Hall of the People and said the two powers had “made progress and reached agreement” on unspecified issues.

“I hope that Secretary Blinken, through this visit, can make positive contributions to stabilising China-US relations,” Xi told the top US diplomat, the highest-ranking American official to travel to Beijing in nearly five years.

Both sides had played down prospects for breakthroughs, with Blinken saying his more than 11 hours of talks over two days were more about restoring dialogue.

“We have made progress and we are moving forward,” Blinken told reporters later, while adding: “None of this gets resolved with one visit.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang agreed to pay a return visit to the United States but Blinken acknowledged limited progress on jumpstarting communication with China’s military, a key priority for the United States as tensions simmer over Taiwan.

“Direct engagement and sustained communication at senior levels is the best way to responsibly manage differences and ensure that competition does not veer into conflict,” Blinken told reporters.

“I heard the same from my Chinese counterparts. We both agree on the need to stabilise our relationship,” he added.

Blinken said the world’s two largest economies would work together to expand flights — still at a bare minimum since the Covid-19 pandemic — and would explore ways to discuss Chinese exports of chemicals that make fentanyl, the painkiller behind an addiction epidemic in the United States.