Meeting with Antony Blinken | Beijing and Washington must be “partners, not rivals,” says Xi Jinping

(Beijing) Chinese President Xi Jinping received the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken on Friday and called on the United States to “be partners, not rivals”, the American Secretary of State for his part judging that China can help “prevent escalation” in the Middle East.

Since Wednesday, Antony Blinken has been making his second visit to China in less than a year. Several issues, sources of divergence between the two powers, were discussed during his official meetings: Russia, Taiwan, trade, fentanyl trafficking.

Welcoming him at the People’s Hall in Beijing, Xi Jinping said the two countries had “made progress” since he met his counterpart Joe Biden in November, according to state television CCTV.

“The two countries must be partners, not rivals” even if “many problems still need to be resolved. And further efforts are still possible,” Xi said. The meeting had not been announced in advance.

American Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for his part, told the press in the evening that he had expressed his concerns to China regarding the support provided to Russia, saying that the invasion of Ukraine would be more ” difficult” without support from Beijing.

He also said he had warned Beijing against its “dangerous actions” in the South China Sea: “I have made it clear (…) that our commitments to the defense of the Philippines remain unwavering.”

Concerning the Middle East, “the relations that China maintains can be positive in trying to ease tensions, prevent escalation and avoid a spread of the conflict”, he said, referring to Beijing’s influence on Iran.

The meeting was also an opportunity to schedule “first bilateral discussions in the coming weeks” on the subject of artificial intelligence and to ask Beijing again for “additional measures” to curb the trafficking of fentanyl, a drug that wreaking havoc in the United States.

Earlier in the day, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned Antony Blinken that multiple US pressures on China could lead to a “deterioration” of ties between the two countries.

The head of Chinese diplomacy recalled that the question of Taiwan, an island of 23 million inhabitants claimed by Beijing and militarily supported by Washington, was the “first red line not to be crossed” in Sino-American relations.

The TikTok case

For his part, Antony Blinken described his more than five and a half hours of discussions with Wang Yi in the garden-surrounded Diaoyutai diplomatic complex as “thorough and constructive.”

China criticizes the United States for its multiple pressures concerning the South China Sea, Taiwan, trade or its relations with Russia, which have strengthened since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Beijing is also standing up against American restrictions on exports to China of advanced technologies, including semiconductors.

Another more recent subject of friction: the social network TikTok is threatened with a ban in the United States if it does not cut its ties with its Chinese parent company ByteDance.

Washington says it suspects the application is used to spy on Americans, collect personal information and also serve Chinese propaganda. TikTok categorically denies these allegations.

Despite these tensions, relations between the two powers “are beginning to stabilize” since the Xi-Biden summit in November, said Wang Yi, however warning against the persistence of “negative elements”.

“China’s legitimate development rights have been unduly oppressed and our core interests are being challenged,” Wang said, referring to US restrictions in the technology sector.

“Calculation errors”

For his part, Antony Blinken expressed to Wang Yi his concerns about China’s alleged support “for the Russian defense industrial base,” said US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

If Chinese companies do not directly supply weapons to Russia, Washington accuses them of delivering dual-use equipment and technologies to this country which facilitate its rearmament effort.

The United States and China must be as “clear as possible in the areas in which we have differences, at least to avoid misunderstandings and miscalculations,” the US secretary of state said.

Antony Blinken’s trip to China is a sign of a relative decline in friction between Beijing and Washington, exacerbated under former US President Donald Trump.

The latter once again promises a hard line against China if he wins the November presidential election. While seeking greater stability between the world’s two largest economies, Joe Biden nevertheless seeks to maintain pressure on the Asian giant.