U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday ended a high-stakes visitto Beijing with an unexpected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The latter stressed the importance of steady relations between the two nations after a period of simmering tensions.
The high-level diplomatic engagements between Washington and Beijing comeas several business leaders have embarked on visits to China in recent months, including Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
China’s Xi held talks with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates last week, saying he hoped the friendship between the people of China and the U.S.would continue. During the meeting at the Diaoyutai state guest house — which lasted 35 minutes, according to the U.S. State Department — Xi said that the worldneeded a “generally stable” China-U.S. relationship, according to a translated readout from China’s foreign ministry.
Xi added that whether the two countries “can find the right way to get along bears on the future and destiny of humanity.” Blinken said both sides agreed on the need for the U.S. and China to stabilize bilateral ties, before adding that Washington had “no illusions” about the challenges of managing the relationship. Blinken said the U.S. was an advocate for “de-risking and diversifying” economic engagement with China, echoing an approach recently adopted by the G7.
Blinken’s trip — which had not initially confirmed a meeting with Xi on the agenda — makes him the highest-level American official to visit China since U.S. President Joe Biden assumed leadership, as well as the first U.S.Secretary of State to make the trip in nearly five years.
The visit could pave the way for a November meeting between Biden and Xi, after the two world leaders last met in person on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali late last year.