US Secretary of State Blinken to Visit China

Facts

• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Beijing this weekend, the first Cabinet official to travel to China under the Biden administration, the State Department announced on Wednesday.¹
• Blinken was initially set to visit China in February, but the trip was postponed due to an alleged PRC spy balloon flying across the US airspace.²
• The announcement comes after Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang allegedly told Blinken on Tuesday's call that the US must "stop interfering in China's internal affairs" and harming its sovereignty "in the name of competition."³
• Meanwhile, Daniel Kritenbrink, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian affairs, claimed Blinken's decision to progress with the visit "at a minimum, [helps] reduce the risk of miscalculation so that we do not veer into potential conflict.”⁴
• Blinken, who will head to Beijing on Friday and return to the US on Wednesday, will also become the first secretary of state to visit China in five years. He is also expected to stop in London to express support for Ukraine's war efforts.⁵
• Though Blinken will reportedly meet senior PRC officials, neither side has stated whether he would meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who could visit the US for a meeting of APEC leaders in San Francisco next November.⁶

Sources: ¹CNN, ²Reuters, ³FOX News, ⁴New York Post, ⁵POLITICO, and ⁶Forbes.

Narratives

• Anti-China narrative, as provided by NBC. Blinken's visit can be an important push with China to cool tensions over the Ukraine war, Taiwan, the spy balloon saga, and an alleged China-Cuba spy base. But while the US has been redoubling efforts to mend ties with Beijing, it's yet to be seen whether the PRC is willing to thaw bilateral relations.
• Pro-China narrative, as provided by Global Times. Blinken's visit will undoubtedly clear the way for face-to-face communication at a high level. However, a thaw can only be achieved when the US starts respecting China's core interests and taking concrete actions to implement its previous commitments. While the US has indeed changed its rhetoric, there's no signal that its true intentions of containing China have changed.

Predictions