US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will not search for “products” during a visit to beijing this weekend, according to a senior official, who instead framed the trip as an embryonic effort to reopen communications between the world’s major powers.
Blinken hopes to “reduce the risk of miscalculation” and conflict by re-engaging with Chinese diplomats in areas of disunity after months of tensions, Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said Wednesday.
“This is not a visit where I anticipate a long list of results,” Kritenbrink said in a call to advance the trip for the top US diplomat, who will leave Washington on Friday.
After months of refusals by Chinese officials to speak to their US counterparts, Kritenbrink said Blinken’s main goals would be to restore open lines of communication, point out US priorities and then “explore areas of potential cooperation.”
“This is really a critical series of compromises that we will have in Beijing, at a crucial time in the relationship, that again we hope will, at the very least, reduce the risk of miscalculation so that we don’t get sidetracked into potential conflict. she added. “It’s incredibly serious.”
US defense officials say Chinese officials have rejected phone calls since blink canceled a planned trip to Beijing in February because of the suspected Chinese spy balloon that was found in US airspace.
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu also refused to meet with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore earlier this month, and Li used the forum to accuse the US of “double standards.”
The refusal to speak, they say, has derailed efforts to reach a resolution on the “unsafe maneuvers” by Chinese warships and military aircraft off US ships over the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, which Beijing claims as territory.
‘Show respect’
Kritenbrink and Sarah Beran, senior director for China and Taiwan affairs at the National Security Council, met with their counterparts in Beijing earlier this month to help pave the way for a meeting between Blinken and the foreign minister of China, Qing Gang.
But efforts to resume talks have been complicated by bad blood in the US-China relationship after months of tensions.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on Chinafor example, he called Kritenbrink and Beran’s trip to China a “Indignation” after the couple arrived there on June 4, the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Chinese officials have also indicated that they have little interest in accommodating the demands made by Blinken while in Beijing.
In a pre-meeting phone call between Blinken and China’s foreign minister on Wednesday, Qin stressed that Beijing would uphold its “stern stance” on its “core interests,” including that the autonomous island of Taiwan be reunited with the mainland. . according a reading issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.
Qin said Washington should “show respect, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, and stop undermining China’s sovereignty, security and development interests,” the reading said.
TO read published by the US State Department, by contrast, said the couple “discussed the importance of keeping the lines of communication open to responsibly manage” the bilateral relationship.
Kritenbrink did not shy away from the differences between the two sides, acknowledging that there were “substantive, productive and candid exchanges” with Chinese officials in the lead up to the visit.
However, both parties wanted to make sure that “we have open communication channels and that we do everything we can to reduce the risk of miscalculation. The Chinese counterparts have used the words ‘to stop the downward spiral in the relationship,’” he explained.
Gathering for Gathering’s Sake
During the same call, Kurt Campbell, the White House Indo-Pacific coordinator, said the trip would be a positive step in US-China ties, denying that it would be pointless without results.
“We heard from unofficial interlocutors just a few months ago that China was giving up on diplomacy with the United States,” Campbell said. “But of course, we’ve seen other signs lately that suggest they recognize that diplomacy with Washington is still important.”
Campbell said he was “not going to speculate” on why Beijing wanted to resume diplomacy after months of refusing even phone calls, but said China’s leaders may have been pressured by concerns about the economy amid the US technology export controls
“It could be that they too see some of the risks associated with (military) accidents,” he said. “It could also be that they see the effectiveness of our engagement with allies and partners, and don’t want to be further isolated, or there could be concerns about our technological steps. Or it could be a combination of reasons.”
“The simple fact is that we believe it is in both parties’ interests to maintain consistent, clear and open lines of communication.”
Kritenbrink reiterated that the resumption of talks is enough.
“I basically disagree with the assessment that we are somehow coming together for the sake of coming together,” Kritenbrink said. “The issues at stake are simply too important to take that kind of approach.”
“But I do think we have to be realistic,” he said. “We are not going to Beijing with the intention of having some kind of breakthrough or transformation in the way we treat each other.
Edited by Malcolm Foster
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