9th June 2023 – (Washington) According to Politico, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is reportedly planning to visit Beijing as soon as next week, marking the highest-level visit of a U.S. official to China since 2018. The trip is expected to take place following Blinken’s current trip to the Middle East, according to anonymous sources familiar with the matter. However, the State Department has yet to confirm the trip, and the Chinese Embassy in Washington has not confirmed Blinken’s upcoming visit.
The potential visit comes amid strained relations between the US and China, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry recently rebuffing Biden administration outreach citing export restrictions on high-tech semiconductors, ongoing arms sales to Taiwan, and efforts by the G-7 member countries to diversify their economies away from China.
Despite these challenges, President Joe Biden has expressed optimism about a possible “thaw” in U.S.-China relations, and the Biden administration has been working to renew high-level diplomatic and military communication with China following tensions earlier this year over a spy balloon incident.
While the potential visit has been hyped by several U.S. media outlets, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin has urged the U.S. to respect China’s core interests and major concerns, and to stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and harming its interests. He has also called for the U.S. to work with China towards healthy and stable development of bilateral relations.
Some Chinese observers have suggested that the US is trying to set an agenda for China and attribute the chilly state of U.S.-China relations to the Chinese side. However, China has welcomed dialogue and cooperation, provided necessary conditions and atmosphere are met.