US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s two-day visit to Beijing made world news headlines but the big question is, will the visit yield positive results? His Beijing sojourn makes Blinken the highest-level American official to visit China since U.S. President Joe Biden assumed leadership, as well as the first U.S. Secretary of State to make the trip in nearly five years. His original travel plans to Beijing for February 2023 were disrupted by allegations of a Chinese spy balloon flying over U.S. airspace, in an incident that stoked tension between the world’s two largest economies. The visit could pave the way for a November meeting between Biden and Xi, after the two world leaders last met in person on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali in late 2022. Let us examine the takeaways from the important meeting.
While the visiting U.S. Secretary of State met his Chinese counterpart and Wang Yi, Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the apogee of the tour was the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Antony Blinken at the Great Hall of the People on June 19. Following the visit, President Xi had sanguine comments, noting that the world is developing and the times are changing, necessitating a generally stable China-US relationship, hoping that the two countries can find the right way to get along and bear on the future and destiny of humanity.
While the U.S. media was quick to report the optimistic highlights, hailing his discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping and top Chinese officials as “very candid, very in-depth” and “constructive” and raised the prospect of cooperating on key global challenges, including ending the war in Ukraine, curbing North Korea’s nuclear program and stemming climate change, some U.S. State Department officials lamented that Blinken left Beijing with his biggest ask rebuffed: better communications between their militaries. Credence must be given to Xi’s observation that the international community is generally concerned about the current state of China-US relations and does not want to see conflict or confrontation between China and the United States or choose sides between the two countries, and it expects the two countries to coexist in peace and have friendly and cooperative relations.
The two countries should act with a sense of responsibility for history, for the people and for the world, and handle China-US relations properly, Xi opined that in this way, they may contribute to global peace and development, and help make the world, which is changing and turbulent, more stable, certain and constructive. It was rightly articulated by President Xi that major-country competition does not represent the trend of the times, still less can it solve America’s own problems or the challenges facing the world. The Chinese President assured that his country respects US interests and does not seek to challenge or displace the United States, while simultaneously, the United States needs to respect China and must not hurt China’s legitimate rights and interests.
Solace may be found in three recent proposals of President Xi, which have been welcomed by certain sections in the US too, raising the levels of hope for a better world. These include: the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), calling for respect for the diversity of civilizations; Global Development Initiative (GDI), unveiled by the Chinese Paramount Leader in a speech at the UN General Assembly in September 2021 and the Global Security Initiative (GSI), which was announced by Xi in April 2022 at the BOAO Forum.
The high level meeting led the Chinese leader to point out that the vast expanse of the Earth is big enough to accommodate the respective development and common prosperity of China and the United States. The Chinese, like the Americans, are dignified, confident and self-reliant people, Xi said, adding that they both have the right to pursue a better life. “The common interests of the two countries should be valued, and their respective success is an opportunity instead of a threat to each other.”
While President Xi’s perception is that of looking forward to a sound and steady China-U.S. relationship perhaps both President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart believe that the two major countries can overcome various difficulties and find the right way to get along based on mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. In the same spirit, Xi called on the U.S. side to adopt a rational and pragmatic attitude and work with China in the same direction. For his part, Blinken conveyed President Biden’s greetings to President Xi, stating that the U.S. President believes that the United States and China have an obligation to responsibly manage their relations, adding that this is in the interests of the U.S., China and the world.
Blinken reassured that the United States is committed to returning to the agenda set by the two presidents in Bali, adding that the United States stands by the commitments made by President Biden, namely that the United States does not seek a new Cold War, it does not seek to change China’s system, its alliances are not directed at China, more importantly, it does not support “Taiwan independence,” and it does not seek conflict with China. While the Xi-Blinken meeting may have been the cherry on the cake, the bulk of the discussions took place during the seven-and-a-half hour meeting at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse between the Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and his US counterpart. During the meeting, Qin accepted an invitation to come to the US an agreement was also reached on more flights between the two countries, while both sides will continue working on several issues “at a working level.”
Simultaneously, Wang Yi stressed that the Blinken visit came at a critical juncture in China-US relations, stating that the difficulties in the countries’ ties are rooted in the US’ “erroneous perception of China which leads to wrong policies towards China.” It is too early to predict an easing of Sino-US tension because one swallow does not make a spring but in all earnest, Blinken’s visit to China “marks a new beginning.”
—The writer is a Retired Group Captain of PAF, who has written several books on China.
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