CNN –
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held “frank and constructive talks on a range of bilateral, regional and global issues” with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on Thursday — the latest in a series of heightened high-level interactions between Washington and Beijing.
Their meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Jakarta comes less than a month after the two met in Beijing for what the US also called a “frank and constructive” talk.
Wang, the Chinese Communist Party’s top foreign policy chief, attended the diplomatic gathering in place of China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who is unable to attend due to health reasons, Portal reported, citing a spokesman for his ministry.
Efforts to stabilize ties between the world’s two largest economies have intensified in recent months after a period of immense tensions between the United States and China.
According to a reading by State Department spokesman Matt Miller, Blinken and Wang discussed “areas of difference and potential areas of collaboration.”
“The Minister used the meeting to advance US interests and values, to directly address concerns shared by the United States and its allies and partners about the actions of the People’s Republic of China, and to advocate for progress on transnational challenges that the People in and around the United States, the People’s Republic of China, affect the world,” Miller said.
Blinken “stressed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” and made it “clear” to Wang that the United States, together with our allies and partners, will advance our vision of a free, open, and rules-based international order.”
“Both sides have agreed to maintain open channels of communication in the coming weeks and months,” Miller said in the reading.
The Biden administration believes the US and China are “getting back to normal in terms of the pace of diplomacy,” a senior administration official told CNN this week.
Following Blinken’s trip to Beijing in mid-June, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen traveled to the Chinese capital last week and Climate Commissioner John Kerry will travel there in the coming days.
Both Blinken and Yellen claimed they had made some progress in efforts to restore bilateral communications with the aim of managing the relationship responsibly.
“It was clear the relationship was at a point of instability,” Blinken said at a news conference at the end of his trip last month. “And both sides recognized the need to work on stabilization.”
“We will not be successful on any given day in every matter, but in a whole range of areas we have made progress and are moving forward on the terms that we have set for this journey,” he said, stressing that “nothing of which can be solved with a visit, a trip, a conversation.” It is a process.”
“Broadly speaking, I believe my bilateral meetings — which totaled about 10 hours over two days — represented a step forward in our efforts to put US-China relations on a more secure footing,” Yellen said Sunday at the end of their journey.
“Even when we disagree, I believe there is clear value in the frank and detailed discussions we have had about the opportunities and challenges of our relationship, and the better understanding we have gained as a result of each country’s actions have.” and intentions,” she said.
Numerous key issues remain between the US and China. Communications channels between senior military officials remain frozen, and Beijing is demanding the US lift sanctions on its defense chief before talks take place. But at the moment it is “not actively being considered,” said the senior administration official.
“Even if that’s the case [issue] should be removed – they have another long list of reasons why they can’t get together, cooperate or coordinate, or have working-level contact. So I don’t see that as something that’s on the horizon,” the official said.
The Biden administration is examining how to narrow itself down to issues where both sides can make progress.
“I think the next step is to figure out how we can find ways in which we can work on narrow areas – in parallel or towards a common goal,” said the senior administrator. “That means we say climate or health or drug control.”
However, there has been no tangible progress between the US and China on addressing the issue of fentanyl flow to the US, although Blinken said in Beijing last month that both sides would work towards setting up a working group on the issue.
Many of the precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl come from China. Chinese officials also said they could not cooperate with the US in the challenge due to sanctions against a Chinese lab and recent arrests of Chinese nationals in Fiji who have been involved in drug trafficking to the US and Mexico, the official said .
There are other thorny issues between the two countries.
Just this week, Microsoft announced that it had discovered that China-based hackers had hacked the email accounts of two dozen organizations, including some US government agencies, as part of an apparent espionage campaign aimed at obtaining sensitive information had.
Miller, the State Department spokesman, said Wednesday that the agency noted the “anomalous activity” last month, but would not say whether it occurred before or after Blinken’s trip to China. Miller said the US government has not publicly disclosed who is responsible for the breach, but has noted Microsoft’s attribution to China.