Chinese Foreign Minister (FM) Wang Yi suggested that the road leading up to the upcoming high-level meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Joe Biden might not be smooth.
Wang’s comments came during a recent three-day trip to Washington D.C. where he met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Biden.
Blinken-Wang Meeting
During two rounds of talks with his counterpart on Thursday and Friday, Wang said that the current international situation is “undergoing transformation and turbulence” and China-US relations are “also at a critical crossroads.”
He stated that Beijing has always believed that the “common interests” of the two countries “outweigh their differences and disputes” and that their “respective success is an opportunity rather than a challenge to each other.”
“The way… to get along should be dialogue and cooperation rather than a zero-sum game,” he underscored.
For his part, Blinken reiterated “the importance of resuming military-to-military channels to reduce the risk of miscalculation.”
On October 27, 2023 local time, U.S. President Joe Biden met with visiting Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the White House.https://t.co/Hkx67sWruj pic.twitter.com/k0gtxx4MD1
— Embassy of The People's Republic of China in India (@China_Amb_India) October 30, 2023
He also said that Washington aims to “resolve the cases of American citizens who are wrongfully detained or subject to exit bans in China” as a priority.
Furthermore, Blinken addressed Washington’s approach “to de-risking and diversifying” and underscored that such policies “are narrowly targeted at technologies that have clear national security or human rights impacts and not about containing China’s economic growth.”
Wang-Biden Meeting
Referring to last year’s G20 Bali meeting and the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Wang said the two countries should work to stabilise the relationship “from further deterioration and bring it back to the track of sound and stable development.”
For his part, Biden emphasised that both powers “need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication” to “work together to address global challenges.”
The American leader also expressed his condolences on the passing of former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who died of a heart attack at 68 on Friday.
Wang’s latest meetings aimed to lay the groundwork for a meeting between Biden and Xi on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in San Francisco, which will take place from 11-17 November.