Blinken visits Beijing amidst criticism and low expectations for progress, meets Chinese Foreign Minister.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Controversial Visit to China
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese foreign minister Qing Gan on June 17, hours after arriving in China for a two-day visit.
The timing of his trip, however, has been met with criticism as experts and U.S. lawmakers say that visiting China was a mistake and ill-advised.
Blinken is the highest-level American official to set foot in China since President Joe Biden took office in 2021, and the first secretary of state to visit since 2018, when his predecessor Mike Pompeo visited China for one day.
Qin greeted Blinken at Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing. The two had a small chat and shook hands before heading into a meeting room. None of the top diplomats made comments in front of reporters.
Blinken’s trip to Beijing marks the latest in a string of efforts by Washington to engage with Beijing, though the communist regime has largely resisted bilateral exchanges on the military level.
Ahead of Blinken traveling to Beijing, U.S. officials and outside observers had already signaled low expectations for any major breakthroughs.
The trip won’t “produce any phased agreement, or specific results,” Chen Lijian, a U.S-based China commentator, told The Epoch Times on June 15. He believes the cause is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has a power structure shaped as a pyramid where all decisions ultimately come from the top leader Xi Jinping.
Xi, meanwhile, has stepped up his effort to prepare the party’s military wing and population for conflict. On May 30, Xi told officials of the party’s national security commission that they “must be prepared for worst-case and extreme scenarios, and be ready to withstand the major test of high winds, choppy waters, and even dangerous storms.”
Earlier this month, a China navy warship came within 150 yards of colliding with an American destroyer during a Canada–U.S. joint sailing mission through the Taiwan Strait, according to the U.S. military. Washington described the naval maneuver as “unsafe” while Beijing defended its actions by accusing “countries concerned” of deliberately provoking risks.
Despite the CCP’s repeated provocations, in a phone call on June 14, Qin told Blinken that it is “very clear who is to bear responsibility” for the worsening ties, adding that the United States should show respect.
Though the communist regime posed an increasingly assertive stance, analysts suggested it has to agree to Blinken’s visit to shore up relations, given its post-COVID economic recovery is losing momentum, the youth unemployment rate hit a record high, and foreign investment sentiment is declining amid the regime’s regulatory crackdown.
“If the CCP completely falls out with the United States, or even heads to a conflict, almost all foreign investors would get out of the mainland, which is a situation that the CCP doesn’t want to see,” said China affairs commentator Li Linyi.
Chen also added that the Chinese regime can’t keep rising without the United States.
Blinken is set to have a working dinner with Qin Sunday evening at the lavish complex in Beijing. He is expected to have a meeting with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi on June 19.
It remains to be seen whether he will hold talks with Xi, who on Friday met with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in Beijing.
Blinken had previously said that his China trip was aimed at building on the “productive discussion” President Joe Biden and Xi had in November, when the two leaders met on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.
However, his originally scheduled trip to China in February was postponed after the discovery of a Chinese surveillance balloon flying over several states, before it was shot down by the U.S. military. At the time, Blinken said the incident “created the conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip.”
The spy balloon is not the only recent incident exposing China’s aggression against the United States. About a week before Blinken landed in China, the Biden administration revealed that China has been operating a base with intelligence-collecting capabilities in Cuba.
Several Republican lawmakers have issued statements questioning why Blinken would choose to visit now.
“Instead of condemning the blatantly aggressive behaviors of the Chinese Communist Party, Secretary Blinken announced that he will legitimize the CCP’s continued subversion of our sovereignty with an upcoming official visit,” said House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) on June 16. “Secretary Blinken and the Biden Administration must immediately cease their weak and desperate pursuit of a ‘thaw’ in relations with the CCP.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said on June 17 that the Biden administration shouldn’t try to appease China given the communist regime’s intentions against the United States.
“Xi Jinping has already made his priorities crystal clear: he wants to dominate the U.S., and a meeting will only give his party more ammunition to embarrass us on the world stage,” Blackburn said. “President Biden should instead focus on building a strong military that can compete with the CCP’s quest for global domination.”
Days before Blinken left for China, the State Department’s assistant secretary Daniel Kritenbrink told reporters that “We’re not going to Beijing with the intent of having some sort of breakthrough or transformation in the way that we deal with one another.”
“This is not a visit in which I would anticipate a long list of deliverables coming out of it,” Kritenbrink added.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) called on Blinken to impose sanctions on CCP officials.
“The Biden administration is holding back U.S. national security actions to chase fruitless talks with the CCP,” McCaul said on June 14. “Secretary Blinken must move forward sanctions and export controls and prioritize the protection of American interests during discussions with CCP officials.”
‘Position of Weakness’
Alex Gray, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and former chief of staff of the National Security Council, questioned why Blinken would want to meet with Chinese officials now, given China’s continued egregious behaviors, such as the incident involving the Chinese spy balloon.
“Right now, the United States, I think, is reasonably perceived by Beijing as operating from a position of weakness,” Gray told NTD, on June 16.
“The reason I’m so concerned about that is President Biden and Secretary Blinken have continuously acted as if a meeting with Xi Jinping or with whoever the Chinese counterpart is, is the most important thing on their agenda,” he added.
“It doesn’t make sense to have the United States appearing to be begging for an audience with the General Secretary of the Communist Party,” Gray added, referring to one of Xi’s official titles.
Gray said he thought the recent revelation of China’s base in Cuba would scuffle talks between the two countries. The fact that it didn’t is important, he added.
“I think, the reality is, the Biden administration is subordinate to the climate change lobby in the Democratic Party, who view Beijing not from a strategic or a military or an economic lens, but from a climate change lens,” Gray said.
Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry has said that the United States needs China in the fight against climate change. However, some experts have spoken out about how China actually has no intention of helping the West on this issue.
As for Gates’ visit to China, Gray said it is important to see there is a conflict—how Microsoft continues to do business with China while a
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