Nearly five months have passed since a dramatic relationship rift over a Chinese spy balloon, which led to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s first trip to China.
The balloon, which China claims was used to monitor the weather, floated across the US before being shot down by American military planes, forcing an abrupt cancellation of his initial trip.
Meetings with senior Chinese foreign policy figures are part of Mr Blinken’s visit. However, it is unclear at this time if he will also get the opportunity to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who appeared in Beijing on Friday alongside Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
The two global heavyweights are concerned about a wide range of topics, including well-publicized differences and potential areas of cooperation.
These are the top three topics that might be on the agenda.
Mr. Blinken’s visit is primarily intended to resume all previous diplomatic exchanges.
Senior US officials meeting in Vienna, Austria, last month served as a first step in melting the ice.
However, Mr Blinken is the highest-ranking member of the Biden administration to visit China, and this is the first time a US secretary of state has been to Beijing since October 2018.
In a pre-trip briefing, Kurt Campbell, the deputy assistant to the president as well as the coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs, suggested that it is a good idea to start talking again because doing so already lowers the likelihood of violence.
“We can’t let our differences of opinion prevent us from advancing on the urgent global issues that call for our collective cooperation.”
However, the Chinese reaction to the Blinken visit has been a little chilly.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang reportedly informed Mr. Blinken that “it is very clear who is to blame” for the recent deterioration in relations during a call on Wednesday night, according to the official Chinese account of the conversation.
In the name of competitiveness, Mr. Qin allegedly added, “The United States should respect China’s concerns, stop meddling in China’s internal affairs, and stop undermining China’s sovereignty, security, and development interests.”
Any important pronouncements resulting from this visit have been minimized by the US. According to diplomatic jargon, it appears that the only “deliverable” from the discussions will be the fact that they ever took place.
According to Daniel J. Kritenbrink, the senior East Asia diplomat for the State Department, there won’t be any kind of revolution or change in how the two countries interact.
Both parties could advance if the meeting results in additional communication between US and Chinese officials.
Relations between President Biden and China got off to a difficult start, in part due to his reluctance to undo trade policies put in place by his predecessor, Donald Trump.
This includes import levies on Chinese-made goods totalling billions of dollars.
Mr. Biden has tightened limits on US computer chip shipments to China in some areas in an effort to preserve US technological leadership in the most cutting-edge technology.
In retaliation, China imposed its own ban on computer memory chips produced by Micron, the biggest US producer.
Mr. Campbell acknowledged China’s worries, but he asserted that the US would defend and explain what it has done thus far and any future plans.
If the two countries are going to compete fiercely in computer technology, there may be more room for cooperation in the illegal drug trade.
The US wants to restrict the export of chemical components made in China that are used to create fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is many times stronger than heroin.
In the past seven years, the number of fentanyl-related drug overdose deaths in the US has more than tripled.
Mr. Kritenbrink declared, “This is an enormously crucial and pressing matter for the United States, but it comes with its own difficulties.
Following the balloon incident, there were rumours that China was considering supplying Russia with weaponry, which would then be used against Ukraine.
Recent US government officials’ retractions of such claims have eliminated what might have been a particularly problematic topic between the two countries that threatened to convert the situation in Ukraine and Russia into a proxy war between the US and China.
But anticipate that Mr. Blinken will reiterate the Vienna-issued warnings to the Chinese that there would be major repercussions if China provided military and financial support to Russia.
A high-stakes game of chicken has been going on between US and Chinese warships over the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. While the US maintains that the seas are international, China claims the region as its own.
Renewing dialogue is the first step in Mr. Blinken’s plan to “de-risk” the tensions, according to his diplomatic team.
Achieving more might be a challenge for the time being, and Mr. Biden may find it harder to get more widespread cooperation as the 2024 presidential elections draw near and Washington’s anti-China rhetoric is set to intensify.
A successful outcome from this journey for all parties could be as simple as creating lines of communication that stop an incident from turning violent.
