Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with Wang Yi, China’s top foreign policy official, in Beijing Monday on the second day of high-level diplomatic talks between the two governments to try to restore communication channels that had collapsed during a row over a Chinese spy balloon early on this year.
Talks on a rainy morning at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse kicked off an expected afternoon meeting between Mr Blinken and Xi Jinping, China’s leader. The two governments have not officially announced the meeting, but US and Chinese officials have spoken in optimistic tones in recent days about planning for it. They said the two days of diplomacy in Beijing would ideally soon lead to a series of cabinet-level visits to the Chinese capital by other American officials.
Mr. Blinken is the first US Secretary of State to visit Beijing since 2018. Efforts to establish regular high-level diplomacy come at a crucial juncture in strained relations between the two nations. Bilateral US-China relations are at their lowest in decades. Tensions escalated in February when the Pentagon announced that a Chinese surveillance balloon was hovering over the mainland United States and then ordered American warplanes to shoot it down.
Mr Blinken canceled a planned visit to Beijing the morning after the Pentagon announced the balloon’s discovery. Mr Blinken’s decision came hours before he left and as US lawmakers expressed their anger at the balloon. That enraged Chinese officials, who said the entire episode undid progress made in Bali, Indonesia four months earlier, when President Biden and Mr Xi agreed to try to stabilize ties. Chinese officials said the balloon was launched for weather research and went off course.
Relations were strained further in February when Mr Blinken confronted Mr Wang on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to tell him Washington believed China was considering giving lethal support to Russia for its war in Ukraine. China responded by freezing some key diplomatic contacts and escalating anti-American rhetoric.
The two men were on friendly terms Monday as they walked down a red-carpeted hallway into a meeting room together. As with Mr Blinken’s five-and-a-half-hour meeting with Qin Gang, China’s foreign minister, on Sunday at the same State House compound, delegations from both governments sat at long tables opposite each other.
At that Sunday meeting and two-hour dinner, Mr Blinken and Mr Qin made progress in rebuilding regular diplomacy, even as they spoke openly about areas of conflict in the relationship, according to statements from both governments and a briefing from State Department officials to reporters involved with Mr. Blinken travel. The department’s written summary said the talks were “frank, substantive and constructive.”
American officials said the two governments have agreed to soon bring together working groups and diplomats on a range of issues, including improved access to each country for journalists, academics and students. The US officials also said they and their Chinese counterparts had agreed to expand direct commercial flights between the two nations.
The two-day meetings could halt the downward spiral in relations. Analysts believe it will take much longer for both sides to overcome the suspicions weighing on the relationship, but the goal of restoring a base of high-level diplomacy is a worthwhile start.
“Diplomacy is not a gift, but an indispensable means of understanding the other side and tackling difficult issues,” said Jessica Chen Weiss, a Cornell University professor who has studied Chinese politics and was recently an adviser on China policy at the State Department. “Reestablishing communication channels is the bare minimum to reduce the growing risk of miscalculations and crises.”
China has dismissed attempts by the Biden administration to set up so-called guard rails to prevent potential accidents from spiraling out of control in disputed areas such as the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. Analysts say some Chinese officials see Americans’ perceptions that the Chinese government and its military may be unpredictable and have a growing appetite for risk as a useful deterrent. It is believed that this perception could prompt US officials to reconsider their military’s activities in the waters and skies around China.
China has repeatedly blamed the US for deteriorating bilateral relations. No issue worries Beijing more than Washington’s perceived growing support for Taiwan, the de facto independent island that China claims as its own. Beijing has also sought to resist Washington’s efforts to limit its access to advanced semiconductor chips and manufacturing facilities and to deepen defense ties with regional allies, notably Japan, South Korea, Australia and the Philippines.
Analysts said China may have been pushed to meet with Mr Blinken for a number of reasons. Pressure on Beijing to stabilize ties could increase due to China’s deteriorating economy. Other countries are also begging China and the United States to break the cycle of hostility. Mr. Xi may also want to stabilize ties so that he will be received like a global statesman if he decides to attend a summit of leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Group in San Francisco in November.
“China has spent the last few months blaming the United States for everything that is wrong in the relationship and within China more broadly. Now China’s leaders need to create political space to focus on more direct communication,” said Ryan Hass, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and China director at the National Security Council under President Obama.
“Beijing believes it is in its interest to communicate directly to manage tensions in the relationship and set a baseline for President Xi to meet President Biden in the fall,” added Mr. Hass.
