BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet on Monday (Jun 19) with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a sign that the two sides are working to smooth out severely strained ties.
China has called on the US to choose between cooperation and conflict as Blinken paid the highest-level visit to Beijing in nearly five years.
US officials have said that they hope the visit will bring more stability, if not breakthroughs, between the world’s two largest economies.
Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades, met Blinken around 4.30pm (8.30am GMT) on Monday, Chinese state media said.
At the ornate Diaoyutai State Guesthouse earlier on Monday, Blinken and China’s foreign policy supremo Wang Yi offered polite smiles before talks with their aides, who unlike their bosses wore masks in line with lingering COVID-19 protocols.
Away from the cameras, Wang told Blinken that his trip “comes at a critical juncture in China-US relations”, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
“It is necessary to make a choice between dialogue and confrontation, cooperation or conflict,” he said.
“We must reverse the downward spiral of China-US relations, push for a return to a healthy and stable track, and work together to find a correct way for China and the United States to get along,” Wang added.
He also issued a warning on Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy claimed by Beijing.
In the past year, China has launched live-fire military drills twice near the island in anger over meetings between top US lawmakers and Taiwanese leaders.
“On this issue, China has no room to compromise or concede,” Wang told Blinken, according to CCTV.