Faced with declining foreign investment at home, China has sought to soften its image in the United States and Europe and make nice with some of its neighbors. One Communist Party official has played an unusually prominent role in the shift in tone. In New York, he told an audience of scholars and businesspeople that China did not seek to rewrite the United States-led global order. In Paris, he said that China’s modernization would benefit Europe and the world. In Beijing, he told the ambassador of India, a regional rival,…
Tag: Wang Yi
China Meets the U.S. to Discuss Fentanyl, But the Détente Has Limits
China and the United States are back at the negotiating table. Whether they can agree on much is another matter. In Bangkok, China’s top diplomat last week discussed North Korea and Iran with President Biden’s national security adviser. Days later, in Beijing, officials restarted long-stalled talks on curbing the flow of fentanyl to the United States. And the White House says Mr. Biden plans to speak by phone with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in the spring. The developments point to a tentative détente struck by Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi…
Biden Hosts China’s Top Diplomat Ahead of Expected Xi Meeting
President Biden met with China’s top diplomat on Friday to prepare for Mr. Biden’s planned meeting with President Xi Jinping next month as relations remain strained between Washington and Beijing. Amid cordial talk of cooperation between the United States and China, the official, Wang Yi, wrapped up a visit to Washington. During the three-day trip, the diplomat also met twice with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and with Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. In all, the meetings lasted about 10 hours, U.S. officials said. Mr. Wang’s trip…
Gavin Newsom, on Climate Mission to China, Meets With Xi Jinping
Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, met with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Wednesday, according to the Chinese state media, as part of an ambitious weeklong mission to negotiate climate partnerships. The two-term Democratic governor wants California to set an aggressive pace for the United States — and the world — to cut carbon emissions that are dangerously heating the planet. Mr. Newsom’s moves to tackle the climate crisis have elevated his national profile, just as he is widely believed to be preparing for a White House run…
Biden Visits Israel and Putin Visits China Amid Gaza and Ukraine Wars
As President Biden visited Israel on Wednesday, seeking to display steadfast American support for the country, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was in Beijing, seeking to display his “no limits” partnership with China’s top leader, Xi Jinping. The two contrasting trips show how vastly the global political landscape has been redrawn by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and how that changed landscape is on full display in the war in Gaza. Russia, China and Iran were already forming a new axis over Ukraine, one they have pursued diplomatically, economically,…
With Putin by His Side, Xi Outlines His Vision of a New World Order
The leaders of China and Russia hailed each other as “old” and “dear” friends. They took swipes at the United States and depicted themselves as building a “fairer, multipolar world.” And they marveled at their countries’ “deepening” trust. China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, used a Beijing-led conference of leaders from mostly developing countries on Wednesday to showcase his ambitions to reshape the global order, as the world grapples with a war in Ukraine and a crisis in Gaza. He cast his country as an alternative to the leadership of the…
China Flies Record Number of Military Planes Near Taiwan
The News China sent a record number of military aircraft toward the self-governed island democracy of Taiwan, prompting the island’s defense ministry on Monday to warn against what it called “destructive” harassment. The previous daily record of Chinese military flights near Taiwan was 91 planes, on April 10. Taiwan said it tracked 103 People’s Liberation Army aircraft entering its air defense identification zone in the 24 hours leading up to Monday morning. None entered Taiwan’s airspace. That tally included 40 aircraft that crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait,…
Qin Gang, China’s Foreign Minister, Is Replaced
Mr. Qin, 57, was appointed China’s ambassador to Washington in July 2021, and 17 months later was promoted to foreign minister, singling him out as a trusted protégé of Mr. Xi. Earlier, Mr. Qin had served as a foreign ministry spokesman, a diplomat in London and as a protocol officer, a job that brought him close to Mr. Xi during foreign visits. Mr. Qin graduated from the University of International Relations, a school in Beijing linked to China’s security service, and worked as an assistant in the Beijing bureau of…
Where Is Qin Gang, China’s Foreign Minister? Beijing Won’t Say.
After China’s leader, Xi Jinping, catapulted Qin Gang into the post of foreign minister in December, Mr. Qin set a frantic pace, meeting dozens of foreign officials as he pressed Beijing’s agenda in a divided, war-stricken world. Then Mr. Qin went silent. As of Monday, he had not made a public appearance in three weeks. His last reported engagements were on June 25, when he held talks with diplomats from Vietnam, Russia and Sri Lanka. He was recently scheduled to meet the foreign policy chief of the European Union in…
Blinken Meets China’s Top Diplomat in Latest Bid to Ease Tensions
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of a regional summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday, the latest in a string of diplomatic meetings between U.S. and Chinese officials as the two countries try to ease tensions. The talks between Mr. Blinken and Mr. Wang touched on regional and global issues, including “peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” said Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the State Department, who described the discussions as “candid and constructive.” “The meeting was part of…