US Secretary of State Antony Blinken walks after arriving in Beijing, China, June 18, 2023.
Leah Millis | Afp | Getty Images
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday, as the top U.S. diplomat wraps up his rare two-day visit to Beijing amid simmering U.S.-China tensions.
Blinken will meet with Xi at 4:30 p.m. local time, according to a State Department official.
The trip by Blinken makes him the highest-level American official to visit China since Joe Biden became U.S. president and the first U.S. secretary of State to make the trip in nearly five years. A meeting with Xi had not been confirmed before Blinken arrived in Beijing, and will likely be seen as a positive sign that talks are going well.
Blinken met top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on Monday, after “candid, substantive, and constructive talks” with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Sunday.
Wang stressed that the Blinken visit came at a critical juncture in Sino-U.S. relations, in a statement released by the Chinese foreign ministry translated via Google. He said both parties must choose between cooperation and conflict, adding that the difficulties in the countries’ ties are rooted in the U.S.’ “erroneous perception of China, which leads to wrong policies towards China.”
Wang further urged Washington to give up its so-called “China threat theory,” to lift sanctions against Beijing and to no longer suppress China’s technological development.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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