If China was waiting for an olive branch from the Biden administration, Secretary of State Antony Blinken seemed to deliver one Monday.
The top U.S. diplomat wrapped up his high-stakes trip to Beijing by striking a conciliatory tone on several fronts. While standing on Chinese soil, he reiterated America’s long-standing “one China” policy and its opposition to Taiwanese independence. He even declared that Washington is prepared to move past the furor generated by a suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over the U.S. this year. Such a stance would have seemed unthinkable just a few months ago.
“That chapter should be closed,” Mr. Blinken told NBC News at the conclusion of his trip. He took a strikingly different position in late January when he postponed his trip to Beijing during a bipartisan, nationwide uproar over the spy balloon.
Less than five months later, Mr. Blinken traveled to China to build a bridge between the two nations, whose relationship deteriorated rapidly amid geopolitical and economic tensions around the world. The secretary’s approach paid dividends as Mr. Blinken secured a face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Both men acknowledged the need to address rising U.S.-Chinese friction before their closed-door conversation.
“The Chinese side has made our decision clear, and the two sides have agreed to follow through the common understandings President Biden and I had reached in Bali,” said Mr. Xi, referring to his meeting with Mr. Biden in November. “The two sides have also made progress and reached agreement on some specific issues. This is very good.”
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“It’s safe to say that interactions should always be based on mutual respect and sincerity,” the Chinese president said. “I hope that through this visit, Mr. Secretary, you will make more positive contributions to stabilizing China-U.S. relations.”
Mr. Blinken spoke about the importance of the U.S.-Chinese relationship to 21st-century global security.
“President Biden asked me to travel to Beijing because he believes that the United States and China have an obligation and responsibility to manage our relationship,” said Mr. Blinken, the first secretary of state to visit China in five years. “The United States is committed to doing that. It’s in the interest of the United States, in the interests of China and in the interest of the world.”
Mr. Blinken’s visit underscored the uneasiness of the relationship. Even the secretary’s arrival at the Beijing airport late Saturday carried undertones.
Photos and video posted Sunday to social media showed the top American diplomat being greeted by relatively lower-ranking Chinese diplomats and U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns.
That greeting paled in comparison with the lavish red carpet ceremony that French President Emmanuel Macron received when he visited China in April. Part of that difference is because of Mr. Macron’s status as a head of state and Mr. Blinken’s position as a chief diplomat, but it appeared clear Sunday that Beijing intended to send a message to Washington through its minimalist welcome for the secretary of state.
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Mr. Blinken acknowledged that Chinese officials rebuffed the U.S. delegation on one specific request: reopening direct military-to-military communications to help avoid misunderstandings in the increasingly tense South China Sea. Beijing has refused Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recent request for a meeting with Defense Minister Li Shangfu, citing U.S. sanctions on Mr. Li.
China’s official media characterized Mr. Blinken’s meetings as positive but emphasized that Beijing blamed Washington for rising tensions. Top officials of the Xi government “clearly pointed out the wrongdoings of the U.S. in handling China relations,” Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, said in an interview with the Beijing-based Global Times news website.
According to the Chinese readout of the 35-minute meeting with Mr. Blinken, Mr. Xi repeatedly challenged the American diplomat to translate U.S. statements into action.
Some American analysts said the entire trip sent the wrong message.
“The original sin of Blinken and [President] Biden is thinking China is a problem to be ‘managed,’” James Carafano, a national security scholar at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said in a Twitter post Monday. “And that all that is needed is some heartfelt weakness diplomacy. What is needed is protecting U.S. interests.”
Dean Cheng, senior adviser to the China program at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said the administration may have reinforced Beijing’s belief that “such meetings are not meetings between equals but a favor granted by the Chinese side to the Americans.”
“Far from stopping the bleeding, we may have exacerbated things,” he said. “An America that projects an image of weakness is an America that is inviting more aggression. The Chinese behavior around our ships and planes is already dangerous. Now, we are inviting them to behave even worse because we will apparently not respond.
“So, I expect things will get worse as the Chinese act ever more aggressively, having learned that we will make concessions to them after their affronts,” he said.
Tussling over Taiwan
U.S.-Chinese friction is hottest over the Washington-backed island democracy of Taiwan, which Beijing views as part of sovereign China and has vowed to bring under the mainland’s control using military force if necessary.
Successive U.S. administrations have responded to China’s threats by increasing American naval activity around the Taiwan Strait and rallying other regional democracies against Beijing’s aggression while defending the ambiguous status quo over Taiwan’s ultimate status.
U.S. officials also have criticized China’s refusal to condemn Russia for invading Ukraine and expressed concern about Beijing’s construction of military bases on disputed islands in the South China Sea — let alone Beijing’s crackdown on democratic and economic freedoms in Hong Kong and oppression of Uyghur Muslims inside China that the Trump administration officially labeled a genocide.
On Taiwan, Mr. Blinken’s comments didn’t break any policy ground but were noteworthy because of the time and place he delivered them.
“We do not support Taiwan’s independence,” Mr. Blinken said. “We’ve made clear that we oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side. We’ve been clear and consistent in our policy, and it’s very important that we preserve the status quo that has helped maintain peace and stability across the strait for decades. So, I reiterated that to our Chinese counterparts.”
Under the Biden administration, the United States has adhered to the “One China” policy, under which Washington has long acknowledged Beijing’s position that Taiwan is part of China, even though the United States maintains informal diplomatic relations and substantial defense ties with the island democracy and does not technically recognize Chinese sovereignty over it.
Mr. Blinken’s comments underscored that long-standing bipartisan U.S. policy, but critics said his delivery of the message at this moment, in China, was a major error.
“The Biden admin is giving China a green light to increase its intimidation of our ally, Taiwan,” Rep. Ben Cline, Virginia Republican, said in a Twitter post Monday. “This is a dangerous display of weakness towards our adversaries on the world stage.”
Mr. Blinken’s meeting with Mr. Xi and top Chinese diplomats could lay the groundwork for continued discussions. Mr. Biden said over the weekend that he is open to meeting with Mr. Xi again soon. Other top Biden administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, are also planning trips to Beijing.
“I’m hoping that over the next several months, I’ll be meeting with Xi again and talking about legitimate differences we have but also how there’s areas we can get along,” the president told reporters Saturday.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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