After his trip was delayed earlier this year due to a spy balloon that causally made its way across the entirety of the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken finally arrived in China this week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Both sides announced their satisfaction with the talks, however, there was a sticking point: establishing a military-to-military backchannel to avoid serious future conflicts.
“I think it’s absolutely vital that we have these kinds of communications, military to military,” Blinken said at a 31-minute press conference in the Chinese capital. “I think that’s an issue that we have to keep working on. It is very important that we restore those channels.”
From AP News:
The U.S. has said that, since 2021, China has declined or failed to respond to over a dozen requests from the Department of Defense for top-level dialogues.
According to a transcript of the meeting with Blinken, Xi said he was pleased with the outcome of Blinken’s earlier meetings with top Chinese diplomats and said restarting the Bali agenda were of great importance.
“The Chinese side has made our position clear, and the two sides have agreed to follow through the common understandings President Biden and I had reached in Bali,” Xi said.
China's Xi Jinping hailed 'progress' in talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing, the final engagement of a closely-watched trip https://t.co/YQ5GEUzHkl pic.twitter.com/MfJ4ftX0uG
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 19, 2023
Blinken also reiterated the Biden administration’s support for a “One China” policy and says the Admin does not support the independence of Taiwan.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken: "We do not support Taiwan independence." pic.twitter.com/4uA1fS8CkW
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 19, 2023
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