US State Secretary Antony Blinken Arrives In China In First High-Profile Visit In 5 Years

US State Secretary Antony Blinken was scheduled to visit China four months ago, but the trip was abruptly postponed after the US said it detected Chinese spy balloons over its skies

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in China on Sunday as the rival powers seek to lower temperatures after soaring tensions. Blinken’s two-day visit to the Asian nation is the highest-level trip by a US official in nearly five years, though no breakthrough is expected from either side. The two countries though have increasingly voiced an interest in seeking greater stability and see a narrow window before elections next year both in the United States and Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy which Beijing has not ruled out seizing by force. 

Blinken was scheduled to visit China four months ago, as a fruit of a cordial summit between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in Bali in November. But the trip was abruptly postponed after the US said it detected Chinese spy balloons over its skies leading to furious calls for a response by hardliners in Washington.

Blinken said he would seek to "responsibly manage our relationship" by finding ways to avoid "miscalculations" between the countries, as he said in Washington before his departure, reported AFP. 

"Intense competition requires sustained diplomacy to ensure that competition does not veer into confrontation or conflict," he said.

Meanwhile, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that the US needed to "respect China's core concerns" and work together with Beijing, ahead of Blinken’s visit. 

"The US needs to give up the illusion of dealing with China 'from a position of strength'. China and the US must develop relations on the basis of mutual respect and equality, respecting their difference in history, culture, social system, and development path," he said, a nod to frequent US criticism of China's rights record.

During his 20-hour trans-pacific journey, Blinken spoke to his counterparts from both Japan and South Korea as part of the Biden administration's focus on keeping allies close. 

Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, travelled separately to Tokyo for separate three-way meetings involving Japan and both South Korea and the Philippines as Washington has reached deals on troop deployment in southern Japan and the northern Philippines, both strategically close to Taiwan.