US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken held “candid, substantive and constructive” talks in Beijing with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang. The diplomats talked for about five and a half hours, according to June 18 Reuters.
Speaking after the talks followed by the dinner, US and Chinese ministers expressed their desire for a stable and predictable relationship between the countries, but China made it clear that it sees Taiwan as the most important issue and the biggest risk in the two countries’ relationship.
Anthony Blinken “emphasized the importance of diplomacy and maintaining open channels of communication across the spectrum to reduce the risk of misperceptions and miscalculations” when communicating with the Chinese foreign minister, the State Department.
Reuters notes that both sides described the talks in strikingly similar terms as useful.
At the same time, the agency believes that the parties did not agree on many issues, except that Gan should visit Washington to continue the conversation at a convenient time for the parties. Both sides also noted the importance of facilitating mutual visits of their citizens to the countries, and Chinese state media reported that the ministers agreed to discuss increasing passenger flights and accepting more students and workers in their countries.
Earlier in the day, it was reported that Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, at a meeting with Secretary of State Blinken, said that relations between China and the United States are at their lowest point since the establishment of diplomatic relations. He added that this state of affairs is not in the interests of either of the two peoples.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Beijing on June 18. During his stay in the country, he will meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and Wang Yi, head of the office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, in an effort to establish open and strong channels of communication. Blinken became the first senior American diplomat to visit China in five years.
The day before Blinken’s visit to China, the White House announced that US President Joe Biden plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming months. Biden hopes that he will be able to discuss with the chairman of the PRC the differences that countries have at this point and ways to resolve them.
The conflict between China and Taiwan escalated after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island in August 2022. The Chinese side considers Taiwan its own territory, therefore, it considers the visit of the island by officials of other countries as support for the independence of Taiwan.
The island of Taiwan has been governed by an independent administration since 1949, when the Kuomintang forces led by General Chiang Kai-shek, who lost in the civil war with the Communist Party of China, moved to Taiwan. Contacts between the island and mainland China later resumed.
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