How is the U.S. managing its relationship with China? Ask Secretary Blinken : NPR

The secretary of state has simply wrapped his go to to China, having put effort and time into a rustic of monumental significance to the U.S. In the direction of the tip of his journey, Antony Blinken met with China’s chief, Xi Jinping, with whom he spoke for greater than half an hour.

Shortly afterwards, Blinken spoke to NPR. He referred to as the Beijing talks “candid, substantive, and constructive.”

Who’s he? Blinken has been by Joe Biden’s aspect because the president was within the Senate.

He has an extended historical past in international affairs and has spent a lot of his time as secretary of state assembly with companions and allies, telling them that the U.S. is again after the Donald Trump period.  He as soon as joked that he might need to search out an condominium close to NATO headquarters, as a result of he is spending a lot time there.

What is the huge deal about this journey to China? That is America’s most consequential relationship, each in the case of commerce and geopolitics.

Blinken was scheduled to go earlier this 12 months, however the journey in February was scuttled as a Chinese language spy balloon slowly made its approach throughout america. The U.S. ended up capturing it down and it has taken months to get this journey again on monitor. A lot of the Biden administration’s method to the world focuses on the U.S. competitors with China. Blinken has simply turn out to be the very best degree administration official to journey to Beijing. He is additionally been a key determine because the U.S. rebuilds alliances throughout the globe to counter China and uphold worldwide norms. Blinken referred to as the Beijing talks constructive, however he additionally stated China has not agreed to renew military-to-military cooperation with america, although he raised that concern repeatedly throughout conferences with Chinese language officers. On Taiwan, the thorniest concern between the U.S. and China, Blinken pressured the significance of cooperatively managing the “problem” of Taiwan, as the 2 have performed “for almost 5 many years,” particularly given Taiwan’s necessary position in world commerce. 

Need to know extra? Hearken to NPR’s interview with Blinken by tapping the play button on the high of this text.

What are individuals saying?

This journey was carefully watched not simply by Chinese language and American commentators, but in addition by these from Asian international locations equivalent to Singapore. This is what Singapore Overseas Minister Vivian Balakrishnan stated on Friday when assembly with Blinken:

“There are numerous world, planetary points – local weather, pandemics, even cyber safety – which require america and China to work off the identical web page and be key pillars for a world system which is able to assist enhance resilience to threats to welfare, well being and prosperity for individuals all around the world.”

In China, anti-American sentiment is driving excessive. Beijing blames Washington for inflicting issues within the bilateral relations. Professor Zhu Feng, a outstanding worldwide relations scholar at Nanjing College in China, instructed NPR he is “pessimistic” concerning the trajectory of the relations. He says as a result of the U.S. is “decided to deal with China as its greatest competitor,” it is unlikely to see any basic change following such a go to. China’s state-backed newspaper, The International Instances, had this to say concerning the assembly between Xi and Blinken:

“[It] signaled that the talks between Chinese language and U.S. senior diplomats from Sunday to Monday reached some consensus, displaying that the Chinese language authorities extremely values the steady improvement of China-U.S. relations, underscoring its sincerity and goodwill and paving the best way for the following section of China-U.S. high-level interactions in coming months.”

So, what now?

Talks between the world’s two largest economies are set to proceed. Over the weekend, Blinken invited China’s international minister, Qin Gang, to go to Washington to proceed the dialog.  Whether or not the 2 international locations will resume their military-military cooperation stays to be seen — and stays to be the realm of concern to many China watchers. Leaders from the U.S. and China are more likely to meet in particular person within the coming months: G20 this fall in India, and APEC in November in San Francisco.  However home politics within the U.S. nonetheless matter, particularly because the 2024 U.S. presidential election approaches. On the Hill, the pinnacle of the high-profile Home China committee, Mike Gallagher, for instance, referred to as the administration’s interplay with Beijing “zombie engagement” (though not everybody on this committee agrees with Gallagher. For instance, Rep. Andy Kim.)

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