(Beijing) – China warned Friday of the risk of “deteriorating” relations with the United States during US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's visit to Beijing, with the aim of calming differences between the two leading world powers.
Since Wednesday, Mr. Blinken has been making his second visit to China in less than a year to try to ease tensions between the world's two largest economies.
It has clearly diminished since his previous visit in June. But disputes continue to poison relations, especially US restrictions on exports to China of advanced technologies, including semiconductors.
The social media network TikTok is also threatened with being banned in the United States if it does not cut ties with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. Washington suspects the app is being used to spy on Americans, collect personal information, and serve Chinese propaganda as well.
TikTok categorically denies these allegations.
Before his trip, Antony Blinken indicated that he would raise sensitive issues with his Chinese interlocutors, such as China's trade practices and Beijing's support for Moscow and even Taiwan.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday that relations between the two powers “have begun to stabilize,” warning of the continuation of “negative elements.”
'Unreasonable' pressure
“Relationships are facing all kinds of difficulties. China's legitimate development rights have been unjustifiably suppressed, and our fundamental interests are being challenged,” Wang Yi said, referring to US restrictions in the technology sector.
“Should China and the United States continue to move in the right direction toward stability or return to the direction of decline?” Wang Yi pretended to wonder.
Ahead of the discussions with his counterpart, Blinken stressed that he would be “very clear and very direct” with him, while saying that he hoped to “make progress on the issues that our two presidents agreed on.”
Blinken said the two countries should be “as clear as possible in areas where there are disagreements, if only to avoid misunderstandings and miscalculations.”
The head of US diplomacy arrived in China on Wednesday, stopping for the first time in Shanghai and landing late Thursday afternoon in Beijing.
Beijing has not announced any meeting between Mr. Blinken and Chinese President Xi Jinping. During the previous visit of the head of US diplomacy in June, it was announced that a meeting between the two men would be organized at the last minute.
Taiwan and Ukraine
Blinken's trip, which ends on Friday, is a sign of easing friction between China and the United States, which worsened under former President Donald Trump, who again promised to take a tough line against Beijing if it won the November election.
Although President Joe Biden seeks to achieve greater stability between the world's two largest economies, he continues to press.
Mr. Blinken is expected to call for restraint, as a new president will be inaugurated on May 20 in Taiwan.
The archipelago is among the sensitive issues likely to be raised as the US Congress on Tuesday gave the green light to a $95 billion military aid package earmarked for Washington's allies such as Taipei.
He should also raise US concerns about China's trade practices, which Washington sees as anti-competitive, a key issue for President Joe Biden this election year.
The Joe Biden government's willingness to cooperate with China stands in stark contrast to efforts to isolate Russia since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
If the Chinese do not supply Russia with weapons directly, Washington has accused them in recent weeks of delivering dual-use equipment and technologies to this country, facilitating rearmament efforts, the most important since Soviet times.
