Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in California on Wednesday, exchanging handshakes and smiles as they embarked on face-to-face dialogues that both sides hope will stabilise US-China relations. The US president opened his remarks by saying that tensions between the two countries should “not veer into conflict”. The Chinese president responded by saying that “turning their back on each other is not an option” for the superpowers. “Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed, and one country’s success is an opportunity for the other,” he said.…
Tag: Antony Blinken
Joe Biden calls for stable US-China relationship during south-east Asia tour
Joe Biden’s national security tour of south-east Asia reached Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday, where the president called for stability in the US-China relationship against an increasingly complex diplomatic picture in the region for his country. “I don’t want to contain China,” Biden said. “I just want to make sure that we have a relationship with China that is on the up and up, squared away, everybody knows what it’s all about.” Biden also said that China’s recent economic downturn may limit any inclination to invade Taiwan. “I don’t think it’s…
China wants to erase Tibet. Will Britain stay quiet about this crime? | Simon Tisdall
Last week’s US sanctioning of Chinese officials involved in Beijing’s ongoing criminal efforts to erase Tibet as a separate political, ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious entity showed America at its best. Few other governments give a hoot. Most cravenly look the other way. Citing a recent UN report on the “forced assimilation” of one million Tibetan children ordered into Mandarin-language state boarding schools far from their homes and families, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, demanded China stop trying to eradicate Tibet’s distinct identity. “We urge PRC [People’s Republic…
China officials hit by US sanctions over ‘forced assimilation’ of children in Tibet
The United States will impose visa sanctions on Chinese officials pursuing “forced assimilation” of children in Tibet, where UN experts say one million children have been separated from their families. Secretary of state Antony Blinken said the US would restrict visas to Chinese officials behind the policy of state boarding schools, in the latest in a series of US moves on Beijing that comes despite a resumption of high-level dialogue. “These coercive policies seek to eliminate Tibet’s distinct linguistic, cultural and religious traditions among younger generations of Tibetans,” Blinken said…
Antony Blinken calls China’s behaviour in the Pacific ‘problematic’ on visit to Tonga
US secretary of state Antony Blinken warned of China’s “problematic behaviour” during a visit to the Pacific island nation of Tonga, citing Beijing’s militarisation of the South China Sea and what he called economic coercion. China’s growing presence in the region, which saw it sign a security pact with the Solomon Islands last year, has fuelled concern in the US and Australia about Beijing’s ambitions, and prompted increased Western aid and engagement. Blinken said at a press conference that the US had no objection to China’s engagement with the region…
US-China talks set out the most modest aim: better communication
When Janet Yellen left Beijing on Sunday after four days of talks, the US treasury secretary in effect admitted that the delegation achieved its main objective simply by sitting down with top Chinese officials. After years of dangerous and deepening separation between the people running the world’s two biggest economies, they were finally back in a room together. At a brief press conference that was the only tangible outcome of the talks, Yellen listed her hopes for the future. They included something that a decade ago would have been taken…
‘India is now a linchpin’: US looks to Narendra Modi’s visit to counter China
The symbolism of the visit will be hard to avoid. As Narendra Modi arrives in Washington DC on Wednesday – the capital of a country he was once prohibited from visiting for almost 10 years – he will join the ranks of Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Volodymyr Zelenskiy as one of the few leaders to address a joint session of Congress more than once. Statements from US officials ahead of the visit have been rapturous on the subject of US-India relations, praising the “significant defence partnership” and describing it…
Xi and Blinken exchange warm words while refusing to budge
Antony Blinken’s meeting with Xi Jinping on Monday may have lasted only 35 minutes, but both sides insisted that it represented progress in the strained relationship. The two men exchanged warm words while both refusing to budge on their respective core interests. That the US secretary of state was able to meet China’s leader at all was a diplomatic coup for the highly anticipated visit. Blinken is the highest-ranking US official to visit Beijing since 2018, but until he arrived in the Chinese capital it was not confirmed that he…
Antony Blinken meets Xi Jinping in Beijing
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is meeting China’s president, Xi Jinping, in Beijing. The talks between Blinken, who is on the first visit to China by a US secretary of state in five years, and Xi began at 4.30 pm (0830 GMT). Earlier on Monday Xi Blinken held extensive discussions with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi. Describing the US-China relationship as being at a low point, Wang said the root cause was the United States’ wrong perception of China. Blinken underscored the importance of open communication channels to…
Antony Blinken in China: all eyes on whether US secretary of state will meet Xi Jinping
Antony Blinken will meet China’s top diplomat and perhaps its president on Monday, on the final day of a rare visit aimed at trying to bring relations back from historic lows. In the first visit by a US secretary of state to China in five years, Blinken is set to meet Wang Yi but all eyes will be on whether he also meets president Xi Jinping, an engagement sources familiar with the matter said was expected but yet to be confirmed by the state department. On Sunday, Blinken held talks…