How does the US manage its relationship with China? Ask Minister Blinken : NPR

A report by China Central Television showed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday.

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A report by China Central Television showed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday.

Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images

The Secretary of State has just finished his visit to China, after having spent time and energy in a country of great importance to the United States. At the end of the trip, Antony Blinken met the leader of China, Xi Jinping, with whom he talked more. half hour.

Shortly after, Blinken spoke to NPR. He called the talks in Beijing “frank, substantive and constructive.”

Who is he? Blinken has been by Joe Biden’s side since the president was in the Senate.

• He has long experience in foreign affairs and has spent most of his time as secretary of state meeting with partners and allies, telling them that the United States is back after the Donald Trump era.
• He once joked that he might have to find an apartment near NATO headquarters, because he spends so much time there.

Blinken joined Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday.

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Leah Millis/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

What’s the big deal about this trip to China? This is America’s most consequential relationship, both trade and geopolitical.

• Blinken was scheduled to go earlier this year, but the trip in February was scuttled because Chinese spy balloon slowly flies over the US. In the end, the United States shot it down and it took months to get the trip back on track.
• Much of the Biden administration’s world approach has focused on America’s competition with China. Blinken has just become the highest-ranking government official to visit Beijing.
• He is also a key figure as the United States rebuilds alliances globally to counter China and uphold international norms.
• Blinken called the Beijing talks constructive, but he also said China has not yet agreed to resume military cooperation with the United States, although he has repeatedly raised the issue in meetings with the United States. Chinese officials.
• On the Taiwan issue, the most thorny issue between the United States and China, Blinken stressed the importance of cooperating to manage the “challenge” of Taiwan, as the two sides have done “for nearly five decades.” especially considering Taiwan’s important role in global trade.

You want to know more? Listen to NPR’s interview with Blinken by hitting the play button at the top of this article.

What are people saying?

• This trip is closely watched not only by Chinese and American commentators, but also by people from Asian countries such as Singapore. Here’s what Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said on Friday when he met Blinken:

“There are many global, planetary issues – climate, pandemics, even cybersecurity – that require the United States and China to come together and become the mainstays of a global system.” needs to help strengthen resilience to threats to the well-being, health and prosperity of people around the world.”

• In China, anti-American sentiment is on the rise. Beijing blames Washington for problems in bilateral relations. Professor Zhu Feng, a distinguished scholar of international relations at Nanjing University in China, told NPR he was “pessimistic” about the trajectory of relations. Because the US is “determined to see China as its biggest competitor”, he said, it is unlikely to see any fundamental change after such a visit.

• China’s state-backed newspaper, Global Timeshad this to say about the meeting between Xi and Blinken:

“[It] signaled that the talks between senior Chinese and US diplomats from Sunday to Monday had reached some consensus, showing that the Chinese government appreciates the steady development of the bilateral relationship. China-US relations, underscore their sincerity and goodwill, and pave the way for China’s next phase of high-level US interactions in the coming months.”

So what now?

• Negotiations between the world’s two largest economies will continue. Over the weekend, Blinken invited Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang to visit Washington to continue the dialogue.
• Whether the two countries will resume military-to-military cooperation remains to be seen — and remains an area of ​​interest to many China observers.
• The leaders of the United States and China are likely to meet face-to-face in the coming months: the G20 this fall in India and APEC in November in San Francisco.
• But domestic politics in the United States remains important, especially as the 2024 US presidential election approaches. For example, on Hill, the head of the high-level China committee in the House, Mike Gallagher, calls the government’s interaction with Beijing “zombie engagement” (although not everyone on this committee agreed with Gallagher. For example, Representative Andy Kim.)

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