China today warned the US it must choose between ‘cooperation or conflict’ and said there is ‘no room to compromise’ on Taiwan during a visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his final day of a trip aimed at improving severely strained ties.
Blinken and Wang Yi, China’s highest-ranking foreign policy official, spoke for three hours on Monday at the ornate state guesthouse in the ancient Diaoyutai gardens, according to a State Department official.
The meeting comes as it was confirmed that Blinken will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at 4.30pm (local time).
A Blinken-Xi meeting had been expected, but neither side had confirmed it would happen until just an hour before the talks, which are seen as key to the success of the trip. A snub by the Chinese leader would have been a major setback to the effort restore and maintain communications at senior levels.
The encounter with Xi comes on the second and second and final day of Blinken’s critical meetings with senior Chinese officials. The two sides have thus far expressed willingness to talk but have showed little inclination to bend on hardened positions that have sent tensions soaring.
‘The Secretary of State’s trip to Beijing this time comes at a critical juncture in China-US relations,’ Wang told Blinken, according to a readout from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, on Sunday
Pictured: The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon observing the Chinese PLA Navy vessel Luyang III (top) while on a transit through the Taiwan Strait with the Royal Canadian Navy’s HMCS Montreal on June 3
‘It is necessary to make a choice between dialogue and confrontation, cooperation or conflict,’ he said.
‘We must reverse the downward spiral of China-US relations, push for a return to a healthy and stable track, and work together to find a correct way for China and the United States to get along,’ Wang added.
He also issued a warning on Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy claimed by Beijing.
In the past year, China has launched live-fire military drills twice near the island in anger over actions by top US lawmakers.
‘On this issue, China has no room to compromise or concede,’ Wang told Blinken, according to CCTV.
‘The United States must truly adhere to the One China principle confirmed in the three joint US-China communiques, respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and clearly oppose ‘Taiwan independence’.’
Ahead of their meeting, Blinken and Wang offered polite smiles before the cameras and exchanged pleasantries.
They then headed into a meeting with their aides, who unlike their bosses wore masks in line with Covid-19 protocols.
Tensions have soared between the world’s two largest economies in recent years on issues ranging from trade to technology to Taiwan.
US officials say that they did not expect major breakthroughs from Blinken’s talks but they hope to reopen regular lines of communication to prevent mishaps from escalating into conflict.
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 the shootdown of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the U.S.
Both countries said Sunday that Qin accepted an offer to pay a return visit to Washington at a later date.
On Sunday, Blinken met for seven and a half hours with Foreign Minister Qin Gang – longer than expected – with the two sides agreeing to keep up communication.
soldier stands near Hsiung Feng mobile missile launchers at Cape Maobitou park in Pingtung County, Taiwan, on April 10
The talks with Qin were ‘candid, substantive and constructive’, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
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’, Miller added.
Behind closed doors, Qin told Blinken that relations between the United States and China ‘are at the lowest point since the establishment of diplomatic relations’, according to 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 said during the talks.
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the discussions went beyond the usual talking points.
‘This was a real conversation,’ he said.
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.
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.
