BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at 4:30 p.m. Monday, the U.S. State Department said, as the top U.S. diplomat wraps up his two-week visit to China. Days after Beijing with the aim of defusing the growing tensions between the two countries.
A meeting between Blinken and Xi was expected but not confirmed by either side until an hour before the talks, which are believed to be key to the trip’s success. A snub from the Chinese leader would have been a major setback to efforts to restore and maintain communications at the highest level.
Blinken is the senior US official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office and the first Secretary of State to make the trip in five years. His visit is expected to mark the start of a new round of visits by senior US and Chinese officials, potentially including a meeting between Xi and Biden in the coming months.
The meeting with Xi comes on the second and second and last days of Blinken’s crucial meetings with top Chinese officials. So far, both sides have expressed a willingness to talk but have shown little willingness to back down from their strong stance that has fueled tensions.
Blinken met with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi for about three hours Monday morning, according to a US official.
Neither Blinken nor Wang offered any comment to reporters as they greeted each other and sat down to talk.
China’s Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement that Blinken’s visit “coincides with a critical moment in Sino-US relations and the need to choose between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict,” and blamed the “US misperception of China.” responsible for “wrong policy towards China” due to the current “low point” in relations.
He stressed that the United States has a responsibility to “stop the spiraling decline of the Sino-US negotiations to put them back on a healthy and stable path,” and that Wang “has demanded that the United States stop ‘ Theory of the threat’ to exaggerate.” China’, lift the illegal unilateral sanctions against China, give up the suppression of China’s technological development, and refrain from arbitrary interference in China’s internal affairs.”