Posted10 June 2023, 08:27
DiplomacyAfter postponing his visit, Antony Blinken will travel to China on June 18
In February, the Secretary of State canceled his trip to Beijing after a Chinese balloon passed through United States airspace. Since 2018, no senior US diplomat has visited China.
Antony Blinken had canceled his first planned visit to China in February after the intrusion of a spy balloon.
REUTERS
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be in Beijing on June 18. It would be the first visit by a senior US diplomat to China since his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, traveled in October 2018, the officials said. His visit has not yet been officially announced by the US State Department.
Last November, for the first time since Joe Biden entered the White House, the American president and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met at the G20 summit in Indonesia. The two leaders had agreed to cooperate on certain issues during their discussions.
Relations between the two powers were again tense in February, after the overflight of American territory by a balloon considered as a spy by Washington. Antony Blinken then canceled his trip to China at the last minute.
Calming, thawing, tensions
However, both sides have recently sought to play the appeasement card, notably during a closed-door meeting in May in Vienna between the national security adviser of the White House, Jake Sullivan, and the head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi.
But despite the American promise of a “thaw”, the two countries continue to cross swords on the issues of Taiwan, Chinese territorial claims in the China Sea or even the strategic one of electronic chips.
(AFP)
