Top US diplomat in meeting with Chinese President

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has met Chinese President Xi Jinping as the top US diplomat wrapped up a two-day visit to Beijing aimed at easing soaring tensions between the countries.

The meeting at the Great Hall of the People had been expected and was seen as key to the success of the trip, but neither side confirmed it would happen until a US official announced it an hour beforehand.

In footage of the 35-minute meeting released by state broadcaster CCTV, Mr Xi is heard to say: “The two sides have agreed to follow through on the common understandings President Biden and I have reached in Bali.”

In earlier meetings between Mr Blinken and senior Chinese officials, the two sides expressed willingness to talk but showed little inclination to change stance on disagreements ranging from trade, to Taiwan, to human rights conditions in China and Hong Kong, to Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea, to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Mr Xi said that the two sides had made progress and reached agreements on “some specific issues” without elaborating. “This is very good,” Mr Xi said.

“I hope that through this visit, Mr Secretary, you will make more positive contributions to stabilising China-US relation,” the Chinese President added.

Despite Mr Blinken’s presence in China, he and other US officials had played down the prospects for any significant breakthroughs on the most vexing issues facing the planet’s two largest economies.

Instead, these officials have emphasised the importance of the two countries establishing and maintaining better lines of communication.

Mr Blinken is the highest-level 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 usher in a new round of visits by senior US and Chinese officials, possibly including a meeting between Mr Xi and Mr Biden in the coming months.

The encounter with Mr Xi comes on the second and second and final day of Mr Blinken’s critical meetings with senior Chinese officials.

The two sides have thus far expressed willingness to talk but have showed little inclination to alter positions that have sent tensions soaring.

Earlier on Monday, Mr Blinken met China’s top diplomat Wang Yi for about three hours, according to a US official.

Neither Mr Blinken nor Mr Wang made any comment to reporters as they greeted each other and sat for their discussion.

China’s ministry of foreign affairs said Mr Blinken’s visit “coincides with a critical juncture in China-US relations, and it is necessary to make a choice between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict”, and blamed the “US side’s erroneous perception of China, leading to incorrect policies towards China” for the current “low point” in relations.

It said America had a responsibility to halt “the spiralling decline of China-US relations to push it back to a healthy and stable track” and that Wang had “demanded that the US stop hyping up the ‘China threat theory’, lift illegal unilateral sanctions against China, abandon suppression of China’s technological development, and refrain from arbitrary interference in China’s internal affairs”.

Despite Mr Blinken’s presence in China, he and other US officials had played down the prospects of any significant breakthroughs on the most vexing issues facing the planet’s two largest economies.

Instead, these officials have emphasised the importance of the two countries establishing and maintaining better lines of communication.

Mr Blinken is the highest-level American official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office and his two-day trip comes after his initial plans to travel to China were postponed in February after a Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down over the US.

Mr Biden and Mr 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”, Mr Blinken said before leaving for Beijing.

His talks could pave the way for a meeting in the coming months between the two leaders. Mr Biden said on Saturday that he hoped to be able to meet with Mr Xi in the coming months to take up the plethora of differences that divide them.

In his meetings on Sunday, 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.

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