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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with Foreign Minister Qin Gang of China at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse in Beijing, China, on June 18. (Reuters/Yonhap)

US State Secretary Antony Blinken is in China, where he met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Sunday. While the US characterized the talks as “candid, substantive, and constructive,” China expressed that it had “expounded on China’s firm position and raised clear demands on the Taiwan question” during the long-awaited meeting.

Blinken arrived in Beijing on a US Air Force plane Sunday morning. Immediately afterward, Matthew Miller, the spokesperson for the US State Department, posted a photo of Blinken’s arrival on Twitter, writing, “Our relationship with the PRC is one of our most complex and consequential. It is important that we maintain communication between our two countries.”

The secretary of state was originally scheduled to visit China in early February, but the trip was postponed after a Chinese surveillance balloon intruded upon US airspace. This is the first time a US state secretary is visiting China since October 2018.

Blinken met with Qin at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse around 2:25 pm the same day, jumping into talks right after shaking hands. During the meeting, Blinken emphasized the importance of creating stable communication channels between the US and China, two powerhouses whose decisions and bilateral relations have global consequences.

On Friday, the state secretary said that “sustained diplomacy” is needed to “ensure that competition does not veer into confrontation or conflict,” adding that the US will “establish open and empowered communications [with China] so that our two countries responsibly manage our relationship, including by discussing challenges, by addressing misperceptions, and avoiding miscalculations.”

On Monday, Blinken will be meeting with Wang Yi, director of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission known as the control tower of today’s Chinese diplomacy. Some predict he will also be meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but no schedule has been confirmed.

In contrast to the US’ stress on the importance of communication, China’s attitude has been lukewarm.

During a regular press conference on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin stated, “China’s door to dialogue and communication is open. The communication between the two countries has never stopped,” adding, “Communication needs to address the concerns of both sides.”

“What is unacceptable is to ask for communication and meanwhile damage the other side’s interests,” Wang went on. “One can’t say one thing and do another.”

In other words, while acknowledging the importance of communication, China has stressed that communication itself should not be the sole purpose, and that the US should scrap many of its hostile policies against China.

This difference in attitude between the two countries stems from the contrasting positions they hold in today’s international politics. In order to stop China from rising to the rank of most powerful country in the world, the US is trying to prevent unforeseen situations that may arise in the process. On the other hand, for China, which has to face the multilayered net of encirclement the US and its allies have set against it, maintaining communication with the US is important insofar as verifying the US’ changed attitude is.

The two countries shared their opinions on other major topics as well. On Wednesday, the US State Department had put out a press release listing the objectives of Blinken’s visit to China, which, aside from the establishment of communication channels, included “stand[ing] up and speak[ing] out for US values and interests” and “exploring potential cooperation on transnational challenges when it is in our interest—in areas such as climate and global macroeconomic stability.”

The New York Times even wrote that security issues will take up a large part of the talks, as US authorities are growing more and more anxious about contact with the Chinese military in waters near China. Another task the US faces is preventing China from providing military assistance to Russia, which started the war in Ukraine in February last year.

Meanwhile, China expressed its displeasure on issues related to its “core interests,” such as the Taiwan issue and the US’ boycott of Chinese semiconductors. China remains suspicious that the US aims to actively utilize Taiwan in order to gain advantages in its competition with China, as can be seen by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August of last year.

The US’ restrictions on exports to China of semiconductor technology, which the US designated as a key item that needs “de-risking,” poses another challenge for China. China also expressed displeasure regarding the US’ endeavors to form a net of encirclement against it by bringing together US allies located near China, such as South Korea, Japan, Australia and the Philippines.

Blinken’s visit to China came to fruition after US President Joe Biden and Xi agreed to continue bilateral communication at the Group of 20 summit, held last November. At the time, the two leaders agreed to prevent conflict while continuing to compete, promising to pursue follow-up talks.

By Choi Hyun-june, Beijing correspondent; Lee Bon-young, Washington correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]