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Key takeaways from Antony Blinken's visit to China

By Haley Ott

Updated on: June 19, 2023 / 9:01 PM EDT / CBS News

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded a long-anticipated visit to China on Monday, holding a sit-down meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping after two days of talks with other senior officials. The visit was an attempt to repair the deteriorating relationship between the two countries, which Blinken called "one of the most consequential in the world."

Why was Blinken's trip to China a big deal?

Blinken is the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit China since 2018. He was scheduled to go in February but his trip was abruptly postponed after the U.S. military shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States. 

His meeting with Xi was only confirmed by the U.S. State Department shortly before it took place.

Over the last few years, relations between the U.S. and China have deteriorated significantly, plummeting to a "low point," in the words of one senior Chinese official. The bilateral ties have been battered due to, among other things, what the U.S. and its allies see as Chinese provocations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, as well as China's support for Russia amid Vladimir Putin's ongoing invasion of Ukraine .

"It was clear coming in that the relationship was at a point of instability, and both sides recognized the need to work to stabilize it," Blinken said at a news conference Monday after his meetings.

"A real conversation, a productive exchange"

Blinken said he'd traveled to China to "strengthen high-level challenges of communication, to make clear our positions and intentions in areas of disagreement, and to explore areas where we might work together when our interests align on shared transnational challenges. And we did all of that."

He said he had an "important" conversation with Xi on Monday. 

Xi said the two sides had "agreed to follow through on the common understandings" reached by himself and President Biden on the sidelines of a summit last year in Bali, and made progress on other issues. 

"This is very good," the Chinese leader said.

Earlier, Blinken met with other Chinese officials, Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, and State Councillor Qin Gang. According to a Chinese government readout, Qin said that coming into the talks, the relationship between the U.S. and China was "at the lowest point since its establishment."

"This does not serve the fundamental interests of the two peoples or meet the shared expectations of the international community," the Chinese readout of that meeting said.

But after speaking for over five hours, both sides had more positive things to say.

"This was a real conversation, a productive exchange," a senior State Department official said.

The Chinese readout of the meeting said the talks were "candid, in-depth, and constructive."

The U.S. readout used similar language, adding that Blinken had "emphasized the importance of diplomacy and maintaining open channels of communication across the full range of issues to reduce the risk of misperception and miscalculation."

"Both sides agreed to keep moving forward consultations on the guiding principles of China-U.S. relations," the Chinese readout said.

One of the issues contributing to the deterioration of U.S.-Chinese relations has been Taiwan, a democratically self-governing island about 100 miles off the east coast of mainland China. Taiwan has functioned for decades as a multi-party democracy, but China considers it part of its territory. 

Xi has made "reunification" one of his core goals, and has said China is willing to assert control over Taiwan by force if necessary.

The United States has long employed a policy of "strategic ambiguity" over Taiwan, declining to explicitly state how Washington would respond to a Chinese invasion of the island. Remarks by President Biden last year seemed to call that policy into question, but the White House later clarified that U.S. stance had not changed, and Blinken stressed on Monday Washington's commitment to the "longstanding U.S. 'one China' policy."

"That policy has not changed," he said, stressing that the U.S. did "not support Taiwan independence," though it remains committed to ensuring Taiwan has the ability to defend itself from any attack.

After Blinken met China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, for about three hours on Monday, the Chinese government released a statement saying Wang had told his U.S. counterpart that "China has no room to compromise or concede" on Taiwan.

He said the U.S. must "respect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and clearly oppose 'Taiwan independence."

Ukraine and Russia

China's officially-neutral stance on its ally Russia's war in Ukraine has been another key point of contention with Washington. Top U.S. officials, including Blinken , voiced concern late last year that Beijing could decide to provide lethal military aid to support Vladimr Putin's invasion.

Blinken noted on Monday that China had previously committed to not providing lethal aid to Russia for use in Ukraine, and he said the U.S. had "not seen anything right now to contradict that."

Military-to-military communications

Direct lines of communication between U.S. and Chinese military commanders — a key point of contact in the view of American officials when it comes to easing sudden, tense situations that could snowball into global crises — have been all but severed for some time. 

The issue was highlighted early this year during the spy balloon incident, when U.S. officials said Chinese counterparts simply declined to answer calls to dedicated crisis phone lines .

Given the tension around Taiwan and in the South China Sea, where the two countries routinely fly and sail military hardware in close proximity to one another, the U.S. has been trying hard to reestablish these emergency lines of communication that connect front-line commanders.

Blinken said he'd raised the issue of direct military-to-military communications multiple times during his visit to Beijing, but "at this moment, China has not agreed to move forward with that."

"It is very important that we restore those channels," he said. "If we agree that we have a responsibility to manage this relationship responsibly, if we agree that it's in our mutual interests to make sure that the competitive aspects of the relationship don't veer into conflict, then surely we can agree and see the need for making sure that the channels of communication that we've both said are necessary to do that include military-to-military channels."

He called the conversations with China regarding the reestablishment of those channels  a "work in progress ." 

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Haley Ott is the CBS News Digital international reporter, based in the CBS News London bureau.

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These Issues Are Testing the U.S.-China Thaw

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is in China this week as tensions have risen over trade, security, Russia’s war on Ukraine and the Middle East crisis.

By Ana Swanson ,  David Pierson and Olivia Wang

Ana Swanson covers trade and the U.S.-China relationship and is accompanying Mr. Blinken on his trip. David Pierson covers China’s foreign policy and its influence in the world.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is meeting officials in China this week as disputes over wars, trade, technology and security are testing the two countries’ efforts to stabilize the relationship.

The United States is heading into an election year in which President Biden will face intense pressure to confront China’s authoritarian government and offer new protections for American businesses and workers from low-priced Chinese imports.

China is courting foreign investment to help its sluggish economy. At the same time, its leader, Xi Jinping, has been bolstering national security and expanding China’s military footprint around Taiwan and the South China Sea in ways that have alarmed its neighbors.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi have held talks to prevent their countries’ disputes from spiraling into conflict, after relations sank to their lowest point in decades last year. But an array of challenges could make steadying the relationship difficult.

Showdowns Over China’s Territory Claims

The United States has been pushing back against China’s increasingly assertive claims over swaths of the South China Sea and the self-governed island of Taiwan by building security alliances in Asia.

That effort has prompted more concerns in Beijing that the United States is leading a campaign to encircle China and contain its rise.

In meetings earlier this month, Mr. Biden met with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines. They discussed territorial conflicts in the South China Sea, including China’s “repeated harassment of lawful Philippine operations,” the U.S. government said.

Encounters between Chinese and American military ships and planes in the Taiwan Strait and the South China and East China Seas have continued, raising concerns that an accident could trigger a confrontation between the two powers. That is why U.S. officials have insisted on maintaining close military communication. High-level contacts between the two armies were restored earlier this year after China froze communication in response to former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022.

China says the United States and its allies are stoking confrontation and should not interfere in the region’s affairs. It has already bristled about the United States and the Philippines launching annual joint military exercises this week. The U.S. Army also deployed for the first time , as part of an exercise, a midrange missile system in the Philippines that could reach targets in China.

To counter Washington’s efforts, China has been trying to shore up ties with nonaligned countries in the region. The country’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, visited Indonesia, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea last week, around the same time that Mr. Blinken met with foreign ministers from the Group of 7 nations, a grouping Beijing considers a rival for global influence.

Curbing the Flow of Fentanyl

U.S. officials say China has played a concerning role in providing the chemicals and precursors that are used to make the powerful drug of fentanyl.

In a meeting in San Francisco in November, President Biden and Mr. Xi resolved to cooperate on tracking and cutting down on those flows. U.S. officials say China has started making some progress on that account, but they’re likely to urge further action.

In a report released last week, a House Congressional committee focused on China alleged that China had actively promoted the supply of fentanyl precursors to the United States, including by subsidizing exporters. A State Department official said that Chinese authorities had started taking action against Chinese synthetic drug and chemical precursor suppliers, but that the U.S. wanted to see progress.

China has long denied playing a major role in the fentanyl crisis in the United States and has deflected blame by saying it was a victim of Western powers during the Opium War.

Trade and Technology Restrictions

The United States and China still have one of the world’s most extensive trading relationships, but it has grown even more contentious in recent months.

U.S. officials have urged China to scale back its exports of inexpensive electric vehicles and other green energy goods, saying they are a threat to American jobs. They are weighing whether to raise tariffs on Chinese-made cars and solar panels, in order to block more Chinese imports from the United States.

Last week, the Biden administration announced it would triple some tariffs on steel and aluminum products from China and begin an investigation into unfair practices by the Chinese shipbuilding, maritime and logistics sectors.

The Biden administration also continues to add more restrictions on selling advanced chips and the machinery used to make them to China, out of concern that AI could aid the Chinese military.

And on Tuesday, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that could force TikTok’s Chinese owner to either sell the app or face being banned in the United States. The ban is likely to be challenged in court.

Beijing has opposed the restrictions, which Mr. Xi has said are an attempt to deny China’s “legitimate right to development.” In response, he has called for China to promote “new productive forces” — a government mantra aimed at bolstering the country’s economy through technology and innovation in the hopes of becoming more self-reliant.

Cybersecurity and Election Interference

U.S. officials have expressed concerns that China may seek to influence the outcome of the upcoming U.S. presidential election, including by orchestrating social media campaigns to influence American public opinion.

The National Security Agency said last week that there were also more signs that China was trying to gain access to critical American infrastructure in order to threaten those systems in the event of a conflict. Last year, Microsoft said it discovered malicious code spread by Chinese government hackers embedded in telecommunications systems in Guam and elsewhere in the United States.

While Beijing has denied engaging in cyberattacks and election interference, recently leaked documents show China has developed a sophisticated network of state-sponsored hackers for hire that have targeted databases around the world.

Russia’s War on Ukraine

American officials have made clear that they see China’s sale to Russia of chips, machine tools, drones and other materials that are used in the war in Ukraine as one of the biggest obstacles in the relationship between Beijing and Washington.

And they believe that getting China to withdraw that support could determine the outcome of the war.

China has tried to walk a careful line of not providing Russia with “lethal support,” like weapons, while still supporting Moscow. In early April, Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with Russia’s foreign minister and reaffirmed China’s partnership with Russia.

Even as tensions between China and the United States have eased, Mr. Xi and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia have remain closely aligned. The two leaders have sought to weaken Washington’s global dominance, blaming “U.S. hegemony” for constraining their national ambitions.

Exerting Influence on Iran

U.S. officials, including Mr. Blinken, hoping to avoid a wider war in the Middle East, have asked China to use its sway over Iran to persuade it not to escalate its confrontation with Israel.

As like-minded critics of the West, China and Iran have had close diplomatic ties for more than 50 years. That relationship has grown economically as China has pledged to invest billions in Iran in exchange for oil and fuel.

Beijing had described Iran’s missile and drone attacks directed at Israel earlier this month as an “act of self-defense,” after what was widely believed to be an Israeli strike killed seven Iranian officials.

Since Israel’s war in Gaza began, China has courted solidarity with the Muslim world by blaming the United States for decades of instability in the Middle East. Beijing has also not condemned Hamas for its terror attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.

Ana Swanson covers trade and international economics for The Times and is based in Washington. She has been a journalist for more than a decade. More about Ana Swanson

David Pierson covers Chinese foreign policy and China’s economic and cultural engagement with the world. He has been a journalist for more than two decades. More about David Pierson

Olivia Wang is a Hong Kong-based reporter and researcher who covers mainland China and Hong Kong. More about Olivia Wang

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BEIJING, April 22 -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit China from April 24 to 26, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin announced on Monday.

Blinken's visit comes at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

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Antony Blinken has started meetings in Beijing, aiming to cool US-China tensions

The Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, shakes hands with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, right, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, Sunday, June 18, 2023. Leah Millis/AP hide caption

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, shakes hands with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, right, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, Sunday, June 18, 2023.

BEIJING — The United States and China have failed to overcome their most serious disagreements but were able to discuss them in a potentially constructive way and have agreed to continue talks, U.S. officials said Sunday.

The officials said Secretary of State Antony Blinken was able during a nearly 6-hour meeting to secure a visit to Washington by Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. But, they said progress on other issues remains a work in progress.

Blinken, the highest-level American official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office, will have more senior level contacts with the Chinese on Monday, including potentially with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Despite Blinken's presence in the Chinese capital and the relatively upbeat assessment of Sunday's meeting, the prospects for any significant breakthrough on the most vexing issues facing the planet's two largest economies remain slim.

Blinken travels to China amid low expectations and global worries of a new cold war

Blinken's trip follows his postponement of plans to visit China in February after the shootdown of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the U.S. Blinken is the highest-level American official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office.

His talks could pave the way for a meeting in the coming months between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. He finished the first of two days of high-stakes diplomatic talks in Beijing aimed at trying to cool tensions that have set many around the world on edge.

'That long list incudes disagreements ranging from trade to Taiwan, human rights conditions in China and Hong Kong to Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea and Russia's war in Ukraine.

Blinken also pressed the Chinese to release detained American citizens and to take steps to curb the production and export of fentanyl precursors that are fueling the opioid crisis in the United States.

U.S. officials said Blinken posed each of these points, though neither side has shown any inclination to back down on their entrenched positions.

Shortly before leaving Washington, Blinken emphasized the importance of the U.S. and China establishing and maintaining better lines of communication. The U.S. wants to make sure "that the competition we have with China doesn't veer into conflict" due to avoidable misunderstandings, he told reporters.

Biden and Xi had made commitments to improve communications "precisely so that we can make sure we are communicating as clearly as possible to avoid possible misunderstandings and miscommunications," Blinken said Friday.

Xi offered a hint of a possible willingness to reduce tensions, saying in a meeting with Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates on Friday that the United States and China can cooperate to "benefit our two countries."

"I believe that the foundation of Sino-U.S. relations lies in the people," Xi said to Gates. "Under the current world situation, we can carry out various activities that benefit our two countries, the people of our countries, and the entire human race."

Since the cancellation of Blinken's trip in February, there have been some high-level engagements. CIA chief William Burns traveled to China in May, while China's commerce minister traveled to the U.S. And Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Wang in Vienna in May.

But those have been punctuated by bursts of angry rhetoric from both sides over the Taiwan Strait, their broader intentions in the Indo-Pacific, China's refusal to condemn Russia for its war against Ukraine, and U.S. allegations from Washington that Beijing is attempting to boost its worldwide surveillance capabilities, including in Cuba.

And, earlier this month, China's defense minister rebuffed a request from U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for a meeting on the sidelines of a security symposium in Singapore, a sign of continuing discontent.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Beijing, Sunday, June 18, 2023. Leah Millis/AP hide caption

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Beijing, Sunday, June 18, 2023.

Austin said Friday he was confident that he and his Chinese counterpart would meet "at some point in time, but we're not there yet."

Underscoring the difficulties, China rejected a report by a U.S. security firm, that blamed Chinese-linked hackers for attacks on hundreds of public agencies, schools and other targets around the world, as "far-fetched and unprofessional"

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson repeated accusations that Washington carries out hacking attacks and complained the cybersecurity industry rarely reports on them.

That followed a similar retort earlier in the week when China said Qin had in a phone call with Blinken urged the United States to respect "China's core concerns" such as the issue of Taiwan's self-rule, "stop interfering in China's internal affairs, and stop harming China's sovereignty, security and development interests in the name of competition."

Meanwhile, the national security advisers of the United States, Japan and the Philippines held their first joint talks Friday and agreed to strengthen their defense cooperation, in part to counter China's growing influence and ambitions.

This coincides with the Biden administration inking an agreement with Australia and Britain to provide the first with nuclear-powered submarines, with China moving rapidly to expand its diplomatic presence, especially in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific island nations, where it has opened or has plans to open at least five new embassies over the next year.

The agreement is part of an 18-month-old nuclear partnership given the acronym AUKUS — for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

China's spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, Hua Chunying, issued a statement of cautious optimism as Blinken started his first day of meetings in Beijing.

"Hope this meeting can help steer China-U.S. relations back to what the two Presidents agreed upon in Bali," she said in a statement on Twitter.

However, two U.S. officials downplayed hopes for major progress and stressed that the trip was intended to restore a sense of calm and normalcy to high-level contacts.

"We're coming to Beijing with a realistic, confident approach and a sincere desire to manage our competition in the most responsible way possible," said Daniel Kritenbrink, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia and the Pacific.

Kurt Campbell, the top Asia expert at the National Security Council, said "intense competition requires intense diplomacy if we're going to manage tensions. That is the only way to clear up misperceptions, to signal, to communicate, and to work together where and when our interests align."

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As Blinken heads to China, these are the major divides he will try to bridge

FILE - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on June 19, 2023. Blinken is starting three days of talks with senior Chinese officials in Shanghai and Beijing this week. It comes as U.S.-China ties are at a critical point over numerous global disputes. (Leah Millis/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, second left, is pictured at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, June 19, 2023. Blinken is starting three days of talks with senior Chinese officials in Shanghai and Beijing this week. It comes as U.S.-China ties are at a critical point over numerous global disputes. (Leah Millis/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Beijing, June 18, 2023. Blinken is starting three days of talks with senior Chinese officials in Shanghai and Beijing this week. It comes as U.S.-China ties are at a critical point over numerous global disputes. Blinken is starting three days of talks with senior Chinese officials in Shanghai and Beijing this week. It comes as U.S.-China ties are at a critical point over numerous global disputes. (Leah Millis/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, June 19, 2023. Blinken is starting three days of talks with senior Chinese officials in Shanghai and Beijing this week. It comes as U.S.-China ties are at a critical point over numerous global disputes. (Leah Millis/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds a news conference in the Beijing American Center at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Monday, June 19, 2023. The United States and China have pledged to stabilize their badly deteriorated ties during a critical visit to Beijing by Blinken, who met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Blinken is starting three days of talks with senior Chinese officials in Shanghai and Beijing this week. It comes as U.S.-China ties are at a critical point over numerous global disputes. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken is starting three days of talks with senior Chinese officials in Shanghai and Beijing this week with U.S.-China ties at a critical point over numerous global disputes.

The mere fact that Blinken is making the trip — shortly after a conversation between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, a similar visit to China by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and a call between the U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs — might be seen by some as encouraging, but ties between Washington and Beijing are tense and the rifts are growing wider.

From Russia and Ukraine to Israel, Iran and the broader Middle East as well as Indo-Pacific and trade issues, the U.S. and China are on a series of collision courses that have sparked fears about military and strategic security as well as international economic stability.

Blinken “will raise clearly and candidly our concerns” during the talks starting Wednesday, a senior State Department official said.

Here’s a look at some of the key issues Blinken is expected to bring up on the trip:

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

The Biden administration has grown increasingly concerned in recent months about Chinese support for Russia’s defense industrial base , which U.S. officials say is allowing Moscow to overcome Western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine and resupply its military. U.S. officials say this will be a primary topic of conversation during Blinken’s visit.

While the U.S. says it has no evidence China actually is arming Russia, officials say other activities are potentially equally problematic.

“If China purports on the one hand to want good relations with Europe and other countries, it can’t on the other hand be fueling what is the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War,” Blinken said last week.

China says it has the right to trade with Russia and accuses the U.S. of fanning the flames by arming and funding Ukraine. “It is extremely hypocritical and irresponsible for the U.S. to introduce a large-scale aid bill for Ukraine while making groundless accusations against normal economic and trade exchanges between China and Russia,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Tuesday in Beijing.

A senior State Department official said Friday that “through Chinese support, Russia has largely reconstituted its defense industrial base, which has an impact not just on the battlefield in Ukraine but poses a larger threat, we believe, to broader European security.”

MIDDLE EAST TENSIONS

U.S. officials, from Biden on down, have repeatedly appealed to China to use any leverage it may have with Iran to prevent Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza from spiraling into a wider regional conflict.

While China appears to have been generally receptive to such calls — particularly because it depends heavily on oil imports from Iran and other Mideast nations — tensions have steadily increased since the beginning of the Gaza war in October and more recent direct strikes and counterstrikes between Israel and Iran.

Blinken has pushed for China to take a more active stance in pressing Iran not to escalate tensions in the Middle East . He has spoken to his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, several times over the past six months and urged China to tell Iran to restrain the proxy groups it has supported in the region, including Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria.

Blinken told Wang in a phone call this month that “escalation is not in anyone’s interest and that countries should urge Iran not to escalate,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said of their last conversation.

The senior State Department official said Blinken would reiterate the U.S. interest in China using “whatever channels or influence it has to try to convey the need for restraint to all parties, including Iran.”

TAIWAN AND THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

In the Indo-Pacific region, China and the United States are the major players, but Beijing has become increasingly aggressive in recent years toward Taiwan and its smaller Southeast Asian neighbors with which it has significant territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea .

The U.S. has strongly condemned Chinese military exercises threatening Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province and has vowed to reunify with the mainland by force if necessary. Successive U.S. administrations have steadily boosted military support and sales for Taipei, much to Chinese anger.

The senior State Department official said Blinken would “underscore, both in private and public, America’s abiding interest in maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. We think that is vitally important for the region and the world.”

In the South China Sea, the U.S. and others have become increasingly concerned by provocative Chinese actions in and around disputed areas.

In particular, the U.S. has voiced objections to what it says are Chinese attempts to thwart legitimate maritime activities by others in the sea, notably the Philippines and Vietnam. That was a major topic of concern this month when Biden held a three-way summit with the prime minister of Japan and the president of the Philippines.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND SYNTHETIC OPIOIDS

The U.S. and China are at deep odds over human rights in China’s western Xinjiang region, Tibet and Hong Kong as well as the fate of several American citizens that the State Department says have been “wrongfully detained” by Chinese authorities.

China has repeatedly rejected the American criticism as improper interference in its internal affairs. Yet, Blinken will again raise these issues, according to the senior State Department official, who added that China’s self-described efforts to rein in the export of materials that traffickers use to make fentanyl have yet to yield significant results.

The two sides agreed last year to set up a working group to look into ways to combat the surge of production of fentanyl precursors in China and their export abroad. U.S. officials say they believe they had made some limited progress on cracking down on the illicit industry but many producers had found ways to get around new restrictions.

Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed.

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Antony Blinken in China: all eyes on whether US secretary of state will meet Xi Jinping

A meeting is yet to be confirmed, a day after ‘candid’ talks with China’s foreign minister, who said ties were at their lowest point since diplomatic relations began

Antony Blinken was greeted by China’s top diplomat on Monday, and will perhaps meet its president, on the final day of a rare visit aimed at trying to resurrect relations between Washington and Beijing from historic lows.

Neither Blinken nor Wang Yi made any comment to reporters as they greeted each other and sat for their discussion during what is the first visit by a US secretary of state to China in five years.

However, all eyes will be on whether Blinken also meets President Xi Jinping , an engagement that Reuters sources said was expected but yet to be confirmed by the state department.

On Sunday, Blinken held talks lasting more than seven-and-a-half hours – an hour more than expected – with Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang. The US state department called the talks – which were held at an ornate state villa, and included a banquet dinner – “candid, substantive and constructive” although they did not appear to make concrete progress on disputes that include Taiwan, trade, human rights and fentanyl .

Both expressed a desire to stabilise ties despite what one US official called their “profound” differences, and agreed that Qin would visit Washington to continue the conversation, though no date was announced.

However, behind closed doors, Qin told Blinken that relations between the US and China “are at the lowest point since the establishment of diplomatic relations”, according to state-run broadcaster CCTV.

“This does not conform to the fundamental interests of the two peoples, nor does it meet the common expectations of the international community,” Qin was reported as saying during the talks at the ancient Diaoyutai gardens.

State-run Chinese tabloid Global Times said in an editorial on Monday: “Despite very low expectations for any breakthroughs made during Blinken’s visit to China, there is still hope that both sides can maintain their ‘bottom line’ in the relationship.”

Beijing has made clear that Taiwan is the most important issue, and a potentially dangerous one. “Qin Gang pointed out that the Taiwan issue is the core of China’s … interests, the most important issue in Sino-US relations, and the most prominent risk,” Chinese state media quoted Qin as having told Blinken.

In turn, Blinken stressed “the importance of diplomacy and maintaining open channels of communication across the full range of issues to reduce the risk of misperception and miscalculation”, state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

US officials and analysts expect Blinken’s visit will pave the way for more bilateral meetings in coming months, including possible trips by Treasury secretary Janet Yellen and commerce secretary Gina Raimondo.

It could also set the stage for talks between Xi and president Joe Biden at multilateral summits later in the year.

Sino-US ties have deteriorated across the board in recent years, raising concern the two might one day clash militarily over the self-governed island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

Especially alarming for China’s neighbours has been Beijing’s reluctance to engage in regular military-to-military talks with Washington.

Before the talks, US officials saw little chance of any breakthrough on the many disputes between the world’s largest economies, which also include US efforts to hold back China’s semiconductor industry and to stem the flow of the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl and its precursor chemicals from China.

Blinken was originally scheduled to visit in February but abruptly scrapped his plans as the US protested against – and later shot down – what it said was a Chinese spy balloon flying over its soil .

Biden played down the balloon episode as Blinken was heading to China, saying: “I don’t think the leadership knew where it was and knew what was in it and knew what was going on.”

“I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional,” Biden told reporters on Saturday.

Biden said he hoped to again meet Xi after their lengthy and strikingly cordial meeting in November on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Bali, where they agreed on Blinken’s visit.

“I’m hoping that, over the next several months, I’ll be meeting with Xi again and talking about legitimate differences we have but also how there’s areas we can get along,” Biden said.

The two leaders are likely to attend the next G20 summit, in September in New Delhi, and Xi is invited to travel to San Francisco in November when the US hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

With Reuters and Agence France-Presse

• Antony Blinken
• US foreign policy
• Asia Pacific

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Why is US Secretary of State Antony Blinken going to China?

Expectations are modest for Beijing and Washington in attempt to improve relations after a particularly bumpy year.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to visit China on Sunday as Beijing and Washington attempt to move forward with rapprochement after a particularly tense year.

Blinken was originally slated to visit China in February but his trip was delayed after the United States shot down a so-called “Chinese spy balloon” found flying over US territory and said to be gathering intelligence on domestic military sites.

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Blinken is the most senior US official to visit China since 2019 and the first secretary of state since Mike Pompeo’s trip in 2018 amid then-President Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing. Blinken is expected to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang or top diplomat Wang Yi.

It is unclear if he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping as Pompeo did in June 2018, but it would be noteworthy as Xi is due to meet Microsoft founder Bill Gates in Beijing on Friday.

The main focus of Blinken’s trip will be re-establishing “communication channels” to “address misperceptions and prevent miscalculation”, while also ensuring that competition between the rival superpowers does not devolve into “conflict”, according to Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

These are likely not empty talking points from the US State Department.

Last month, a Chinese fighter jet nearly collided with a US surveillance plane flying over international air space in the South China Sea, with the US Pacific Command claiming that the Chinese pilot had manoeuvred in an “unnecessarily aggressive manner”.

The incident was just the latest between the two powers whose relationship soured under the Trump administration and has remained so under President Joe Biden.

Washington and Beijing may now be ready for a thaw, said Ryan Hass, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who described Blinken’s trip as the “first stage of an exploratory process” by the two sides to see whether they can improve their relationship.

“Neither President Biden nor President Xi benefits from a perception of runaway escalation in US-China relations. At the same time, neither want to be seen as softening their approach toward the other,” Hass told Al Jazeera.

“This is the space that both sides will be exploring during the visit. Is it possible to chart a path forward for the relationship that manages competition and maintains open channels of communication? We simply don’t yet know,” Hass said.

“But this is why there are diplomats. To probe, test, explore non-hostile ways for managing hard challenges. Time will tell,” he said.

The visit follows recent engagements including a call between Blinken and Foreign Minister Qin and a meeting between top US and Chinese officials in Beijing. In May, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in Vienna for “candid talks”.

Beijing, however, rejected a meeting between US and Chinese military officials at the Shangri-La security forum in Singapore last month apparently due to Biden declining to lift sanctions on China’s Minister of Defence Li Shangfu, that have been in place since 2018.

Qinduo Xu, a former journalist and a senior fellow at the Pangoal Institution, a governance-focused think tank in Beijing, said the two sides may also be testing the waters for a possible meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Biden later this year at the 2023 APEC Summit in the US.

“Beijing would say there is little they can get from meeting Blinken, but that being said I think people are still looking at any possibility or any chance they may stabilise the relationship,” Xu said.

“Yes, it is bad, but if we can do something to prevent it from getting worse that would be acceptable at least for Beijing,” he said.

There are still many sticking points, however.

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that China was planning to build a new spy base in Cuba, just 145 kilometres (90 miles) from the US mainland – although US officials pushed back on the story, describing it as an “ongoing issue”.

Blinken will also likely bring up issues including Americans detained in China and the illegal flow of fentanyl from China to the US, which other diplomats have raised in recent meetings.

For its part, Beijing will be keen to discuss US tariffs on Chinese goods and sanctions on high-ranking officials, as well as the growing number of Chinese companies either banned from doing business with the US or placed on the US Department of Commerce’s trade-restricting “Entity List”.

Beijing and Washington have also accused each other of confrontational behaviour in the South and East China Seas, and Taiwan Strait, and of increasing the risk that “strategic competition” between the US and China could turn into a collision, Xu said.

In the meantime, they will have to work through low levels of mutual trust, said Andy Mok, a senior research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization.

Foreign Minister Qin has insisted the US respect “China’s sovereignty, security, and developmental interests”, while also urging the US to cease interfering in China’s interests “under the pretext of competition”, Mok said.

And, owing to “recent American economic coercion and escalatory provocations towards China, expectations for the visit remain modest”, he said.

US Secretary of State to visit China next week: Reason revealed

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit China on Tuesday, April 23, informs Reuters.

According to the source, Blinken will embark on a four-day trip to China on April 23. There, he will hold meetings with Chinese officials against the backdrop of escalating tensions, including China's alignment with Russia and aggressive actions against the Philippines in the South China Sea.

In particular, it is expected that Blinken will express US concerns about Beijing's assistance to Russia in building up its defense industry for involvement in the war in Ukraine.

"China welcomes Secretary of State Blinken to visit China in the next few days," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian at a regular press briefing.

China-Russia political relations

Since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, Beijing and Moscow have intensified their partnership. Specifically, China has been assisting Russia in circumventing Western sanctions.

In October 2023, the US Department of Defense announced that China was supplying arms to Russia. This included drones, small arms, and equipment.

In April of this year, US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell noted that Russia had nearly restored its armed forces, likely with support from China.

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State Dept says Blinken visit to China tentatively planned for early next year

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