Beijing — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began a second and final day of critical meetings with senior Chinese officials Monday as the two sides expressed willingness to talk but showed little inclination to bend on hardened positions that have sent tensions soaring.
Blinken met with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, for about three hours, according to a U.S. official.
The State Department then announced Blinken would meet with President Xi Jinping. Blinken was scheduled to depart in the late evening.
Chinese state media said Wang told Blinken that “China has no room to compromise or concede” on Taiwan.
“The United States must … respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and clearly oppose ‘Taiwan independence,'” the statement added.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in a statement that Blinken’s trip to Beijing “coincides with a critical juncture in China-U.S. relations, and it is necessary to make a choice between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict,” and blamed the “U.S. side’s erroneous perception of China, leading to incorrect policies towards China” for the current “low point” in relations.
It said the U.S. had a responsibility to halt “the spiraling decline of China-U.S. relations to push it back to a healthy and stable track.”
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Despite Blinken’s presence in China, he and other U.S. officials had played down the prospects for any significant breakthroughs on the most vexing issues facing the planet’s two largest economies.
Instead, they have emphasized the importance of the two countries establishing and maintaining better lines of communication.
The State Department said Blinken, in his meeting with Wang, “underscored the importance of responsibly managing the competition between the United States and the PRC through open channels of communication to ensure competition does not veer into conflict.”
In the first round of talks on Sunday, Blinken met for nearly six hours with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, after which both countries said they had agreed to continue high-level discussions.
One official in the room told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan both sides agreed that they want to stop the downward spiral in the relationship but it is clear there are still profound differences.
Senior State Department officials told reporters the meeting lasted five and a half hours and was followed by a two-hour dinner. Both sides were “very direct and very candid” and both expressed a desire to “stabilize the relationship,” the officials said.
The two sides both said Qin had accepted an invitation from Blinken to visit Washington but Beijing made clear that “the China-U.S. relationship is at the lowest point since its establishment.” That sentiment is widely shared by U.S. officials.
Blinken is the highest-level American official to visit China since President Biden took office and his two-day trip comes after his initial plans to travel to China were postponed in February after the shootdown of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the U.S.
Mr. 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 before leaving for Beijing.
His talks could pave the way for a meeting in coming months between Mr. Biden and Xi.
Mr. Biden said Saturday that he hoped to be able to meet with Xi in coming months to take up the plethora of differences that divide them.
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.
In his meetings on Sunday, Blinken also pressed the Chinese to release detained American citizens and take steps to curb the production and export of fentanyl precursors that are fueling the opioid crisis in the United States.
Blinken “made clear that the United States will always stand up for the interests and values of the American people and work with its allies and partners to advance our vision for a world that is free, open, and upholds the international rules-based order,” the State Department said.
The Chinese foreign ministry countered in its statement that “China hopes that the U.S. will adopt an objective and rational perception of China, work with China in the same direction, uphold the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and handle unexpected and sporadic events in a calm, professional and rational manner.”
Xi offered a hint of a possible willingness to reduce tensions Friday, saying in a meeting with Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates that the United States and China can cooperate to “benefit our two countries.”
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 senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Wang Yi 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.
Meanwhile, the national security advisers of the United States, Japan and the Philippines held their first joint talks last week 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.
