Blinken won't cancel Beijing trip despite tense exchange with China
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will not cancel his long-delayed trip to Beijing this weekend despite the revelation that China has built a spy base in Cuba — and claims from the Far East that Blinken got a tongue-lashing from his counterparts on a pre-trip call.
Blinken is visiting the US adversary on Friday and Saturday after scrapping a planned trip in early February upon learning China had launched a spy balloon into US airspace.
He decided to forge ahead with this visit after having “a number of substantive, productive and candid exchanges with a number of Chinese counterparts,” Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs, told reporters Wednesday.
“This is not a visit in which I would anticipate a long list of deliverables coming out of it,” Kritenbrink admitted. “This is a really critical series of engagements that we’ll have in Beijing at a crucial time in the relationship that we, again, hope will at a minimum reduce the risk of miscalculation so that we do not veer into potential conflict.
“I think it’s incredibly serious,” he added.
“Both sides have indicated a shared interest in making sure that we have communication channels open and that we do everything possible to reduce the risk of miscalculation,” Kritenbrink added. “Chinese counterparts have used the words ‘to stop the downward spiral in the relationship.'”
Antony Blinken will not cancel his trip to Beijing despite the announcement that China has built a spy base in Cuba. Samuel Corum – Pool via CNP / MEGA
US-China relations have become more tense. REUTERS
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a different story Wednesday, saying Blinken was scolded by Foreign Minister Qin Gang during a Tuesday call requested by the US side.
Qin told Blinken to “respect China’s concerns, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and stop undermining China’s sovereignty, security and development interests in the name of competition,” Wang said.
US-China relations have grown increasingly tense as Beijing has illegally claimed and militarized reefs in the South China Sea, surpassed the US as the world’s largest navy, ramped up surveillance of Americans and threatened to invade the self-governed, democratic island of Taiwan in an attempt to forcefully “reunify” it with mainland China.
Structures belonging to a Chinese military base near Bejucal, Cuba, June 12, 2023. REUTERS
But Wang on Wednesday placed the blame on the US for the two nations’ fraying relations, without citing examples.
“State Councilor Qin pointed out that since early this year, the China-US relations have encountered new difficulties and challenges, and the responsibility for this situation is clear,” Wang said. “China has viewed and handled this relationship under the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation proposed by President Xi Jinping.”
Wang said China will stand by its “core concerns, including the Taiwan question,” in the upcoming visit.
“It is hoped that the US will take concrete actions to deliver on the important common understandings between the two presidents in their meeting in Bali and the relevant commitments of the US, work with China to effectively manage differences, promote exchanges and cooperation, stabilize the relationship from further deterioration and bring it back to the track of healthy and stable development,” he added.
For its part, the US will have “a substantive and productive agenda that we’ll have before us — but again, the objective is to focus on those topline goals, not necessarily to produce a long list of deliverables,” said Kritenbrink, adding that Blinken expects to have “candid exchanges on some of the areas of significant difference” between the nations, including one of “the most important and challenging and sensitive issues” — Taiwan.
“I think you can anticipate, as has been the case in every bilateral meeting I’ve been in with the Chinese, that there’ll be a candid exchange on the cross-strait situation,” he said. “I think you can anticipate that the secretary will reiterate America’s abiding interest in the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
Communications between the countries took a hit after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in August became the highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan in three decades. That’s when China cut off all military-to-military discussions with the US, a standoff that remains in place today.
Though Blinken’s trip to Beijing remained on track Wednesday, Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu denied Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s request to meet on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore earlier this month. The two shook hands at the event, “but did not have a substantive exchange,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said at the time.
Source: New York Post
