BEIJING (AP) \u2014 U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met on Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and said they agreed to \u201cstabilize\u201d badly deteriorated U.S.-China ties, but America\u2019s top diplomat left Beijing with his biggest ask rebuffed: better communications between their militaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After meeting Xi, Blinken said China is not ready to resume military-to-military contacts, something the U.S. considers crucial to avoid miscalculation and conflict, particularly over Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet Blinken and Xi pronounced themselves satisfied with progress made during the two days of talks, without pointing to specific areas of agreement beyond a mutual decision to return to a broad agenda for cooperation and competition endorsed last year year by Xi and President Joe Biden at a summit in Bali.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, it remained unclear if those understandings can resolve their most important disagreements, many of which have international implications. Still, both men said they were pleased with the outcome of the highest-level U.S. visit to China in five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two sides expressed a willingness to hold more talks, but there was little indication that either is prepared to bend from positions on issues including trade, Taiwan, human rights conditions in China and Hong Kong, Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea, and Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blinken said later that the U.S. set limited objectives for the trip and achieved them. He told reporters before leaving for a Ukraine reconstruction conference in London that he had raised the issue of military to military communications \u201crepeatedly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is absolutely vital that we have these kinds of communications,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is something we\u2019re going to keep working on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. has said that, since 2021, China has declined or failed to respond to over a dozen requests from the Department of Defense for top-level dialogues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a transcript of the meeting with Blinken, Xi said he was pleased with the outcome of Blinken\u2019s earlier meetings with top Chinese diplomats and said restarting the Bali agenda were of great importance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Chinese side has made our position clear, and the two sides have agreed to follow through the common understandings President Biden and I had reached in Bali,\u201d Xi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That agenda had been thrown into jeopardy in recent months, notably after the U.S. shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon over its airspace in February, and amid escalated military activity in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. Combined with other disputes over human rights, trade and opiate production, the list of problem areas is daunting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Xi suggested the worst could be over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe two sides have also made progress and reached agreement on some specific issues,\u201d Xi said without elaborating, according to a transcript of the remarks released by the State Department. \u201cThis is very good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his remarks to Xi during the 35-minute session at the Great Hall of the People, a meeting that was expected but not announced until an hour before it started, Blinken said \u201cthe United States and China have an obligation and responsibility to manage our relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe United States is committed to doing that,\u201d Blinken said. \u201cIt\u2019s in the interest of the United States, in the interests of China, and in the interest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blinken described his earlier discussions with senior Chinese officials as \u201ccandid and constructive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the symbolism of his presence in China, Blinken and other U.S. officials had played down the prospects for any significant breakthroughs on the most vexing issues facing the planet\u2019s two largest economies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, these officials have emphasized the importance of the two countries establishing and maintaining better lines of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus, China\u2019s refusal to resume the military-to-military contacts was a hitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cProgress is hard,\u201d Blinken told reporters. \u201cIt takes time, it takes more than one visit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blinken\u2019s trip is expected to herald a new round of visits by senior U.S. and Chinese officials to each other\u2019s countries, possibly including a meeting between Xi and Biden in India or the U.S in the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before meeting with Xi, Blinken met earlier Monday with China\u2019s top diplomat Wang Yi for about three hours, an encounter that produced a harsh assessment of the talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China\u2019s foreign ministry said \u201cit is necessary to make a choice between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict.\u201d It blamed the \u201cU.S. side\u2019s erroneous perception of China, leading to incorrect policies towards China\u201d for the current \u201clow point\u201d in relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, it said the U.S. bore responsibility for halting \u201cthe spiraling decline of China-U.S. relations to push it back to a healthy and stable track.\u201d It added that Wang had \u201cdemanded that the U.S. stop hyping up the \u2018China threat theory,\u2019 lift illegal unilateral sanctions against China, abandon suppression of China\u2019s technological development, and refrain from arbitrary interference in China\u2019s internal affairs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In it\u2019s readout of the meeting, the State Department said Blinken \u201cunderscored the importance of responsibly managing the competition between the United States and the PRC through open channels of communication to ensure competition does not veer into conflict,\u201d using the acronym for the People\u2019s Republic of China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the first round of talks on Sunday, Blinken met for nearly six hours with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, after which both countries said they had agreed to continue high-level discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both the U.S. and China said Qin had accepted an invitation from Blinken to visit Washington but Beijing made clear that \u201cthe China-U.S. relationship is at the lowest point since its establishment.\u201d That sentiment is widely shared by U.S. officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blinken\u2019s visit came after his initial plans to travel to China were postponed in February after the shootdown of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his meetings, Blinken also pressed the Chinese to release detained American citizens and to take steps to curb the production and export of fentanyl precursors that are fueling the opioid crisis in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the cancellation of Blinken\u2019s trip in February, there have been some high-level engagements. CIA chief William Burns traveled to China in May, while China\u2019s commerce minister traveled to the U.S. And Biden\u2019s national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Wang Yi in Vienna in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But those have been punctuated by bursts of angry rhetoric from both countries over the Taiwan Strait, their broader intentions in the Indo-Pacific, China\u2019s refusal to condemn Russia for its war against Ukraine, and U.S. allegations from Washington that Beijing is attempting to boost its worldwide surveillance capabilities, including in Cuba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, earlier this month, China\u2019s defense minister rebuffed a request from U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for a meeting on the sidelines of a security symposium in Singapore, a sign of continuing discontent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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