By Athena Papakosta

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken held “frank” and “constructive” talks with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang in Beijing at the start of two days of meetings with Chinese officials, according to the US State Department. The United States and China failed to overcome their most serious differences but were able to discuss them in a potentially constructive way by agreeing to continue holding talks, both sides stressed.

Washington underlines that the main objective of the US Foreign Minister’s trip to the Chinese capital is to stabilize the relationship between the two countries as it remains tense, while, for its part, Beijing notes that US-China bilateral relations are “at their lowest point”. them and makes clear that it remains committed to building a “stable, predictable and constructive” relationship with the United States,

It is the first visit by a US secretary of state to China in five years, and the trip comes just months after Blinken’s planned visit to Beijing was postponed over what Washington says was a spy balloon scandal that sparked a new round. crisis between the two powers.

The State Department announced that Anthony Blinken stressed “the importance of diplomacy and maintaining open channels of communication across the range of issues in order to reduce the risk of misunderstanding and misjudgment,” with the Chinese Foreign Ministry adding that “the current status of of bilateral relations does not serve the fundamental interests of the two peoples and does not meet the expectations of the international community”.

The fact that American diplomacy maintains an open channel of communication with the Chinese at the highest level is consistently positive news.

According to analysts, the prospects for achieving significant progress between the two sides on any of the “thorns” that divide the US and China were limited from the start. After all, from the Blinken-Gang meeting, there was no indication of any willingness to back down on any of the fixed positions of the two sides.

The differences between the world’s two strongest economies are many. They concern Taiwan, trade, human rights in China and Hong Kong as well as Chinese policy in the South China Sea and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes that “China hopes that the United States will adopt an objective and rational view of China. They will cooperate with China in the same direction, uphold the political foundations of bilateral relations, and handle unexpected, sporadic events in a calm, professional and rational manner.”

Anthony Blinken insisted on the importance of diplomacy by making it clear that Washington does not wish to disengage from Beijing and invited his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang to the US to return the hospitality. Meanwhile, last Saturday the president of the United States, Joe Biden, emphasized that he hopes to meet with the president of China, Xi Jinping, in the coming months.

The last meeting between the two leaders took place last November and was the first face-to-face meeting between the two since Biden took office. It took place in Bali, Indonesia on the sidelines of the G20 meeting and lasted three hours during which it was agreed, jointly, that tones should be lowered despite differences.

Today Blinken’s contacts in Beijing will continue, while it remains unknown whether the Secretary of State of the United States will also meet with the president of China. The only thing that is certain is that the thorns between the two superpowers remain but, according to both sides at least, the groundwork has been laid for discussions aimed at stabilizing the relationship between the two powers.