American Hopes for Rapprochement With Communist China Bear Little Fruit at Beijing Parley

Secretary of State Blinken is returning from Communist China with only vague hopes for a new phase in Washington’s rocky relations with Beijing — and no deal whatsoever in what he had wanted most, namely regular communications between American and Chinese military commanders.The Chinese party boss, President Xi, avoiding the usual heavy-handed propaganda, appeared eager to head off growing tensions, but Mr. Blinken said the Chinese had rejected his proposal for regular communications between military commanders in the wake of close calls between American and Chinese planes and ships.The Chinese press, reporting on the meeting Monday in the Great Hall of the People, conveyed the carefully scripted impression that Mr. Xi would prefer a calm, stable relationship to the kind of intimidation and recriminations that have marked previous Sino-American exchanges but gave no clues of a real deal emerging from the talks.“Xi pointed out that the world needs a generally stable China-U.S. relationship, and whether the two countries can find the right way to get along bears on the future of humanity,” said Xinhua, the state news agency. “The Chinese, like the Americans, are dignified, confident and self-reliant people, and they both have the right to pursue a better life.”Those measured words said nothing new and substantive, but the tone showed Mr. Xi was as eager as President Biden for what Mr. Biden last month perceived as a “thaw” in the icy relations between America and China. Just as clearly, however, the Chinese were not ready to agree to practical steps to make that happen.The meeting with Mr. Xi culminated months of tensions after Mr. Blinken canceled a mission to China in February when the Americans discovered a Chinese balloon laden with espionage gear wafting over North America. An American air force plane shot down the balloon off South Carolina in a blaze of denunciations from both America and Canada, over which the balloon had flown before crossing the American border. Until that episode, Mr. Blinken had been scheduled to see Mr. Xi in Beijing in what would have been a pivotal moment in American-Chinese relations. The Chinese since then have sent planes into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone and circled the island with ships, one of which came perilously close to an American destroyer early this month, all to fortify their claim to the independent island democracy as a province of the Chinese mainland. Mr. Blinken after the meeting indicated that Chinese and American commanders needed to communicate more effectively to avoid future incidents — a prime example of the communications he sees as “absolutely vital.” The Chinese, however, were not interested in any practical agreement under which both sides could talk to one another in troubled waters.Nonetheless, the Chinese have indicated, amid criticism of the Americans for their response to the balloon incident, that they still wanted a face-saving way out of the impasse. This time, the meeting between Mr. Xi and Mr. Blinken was not announced until 45 minutes beforehand after Mr. Blinken had spent hours in talks Sunday and Monday with the director of the foreign affairs commission of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, Wang Yi, and China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, who is Mr. Blinken’s opposite number though Mr. Wang ranks above him in the hierarchy. It’s assumed that China did not alter its rigid claim to Taiwan, did not back down on its claim to the South China Sea, did not indicate a less aggressive pursuit of power and influence in the Pacific and gave no sign of cutting back on espionage activities, including keeping an eye on American bases from a new facility in Cuba. Nonetheless, there appeared no doubt that Mr. Blinken’s mission had succeeded in warming over lines of “communication” that he had said was essential to easing tensions, and obviously Washington can hope that China will scale back some of its more aggressive activities, including threats to “recover” Taiwan. That seemed clear from the Xinhua dispatch, released in English shortly after the conversation between Mr. Blinken and Mr. Xi. “Noting that the common interests of the two countries should be valued and their respective success is an opportunity instead of a threat to each other, Xi said the two countries should act with a sense of responsibility for history, for the people and for the world, and handle China-U.S. relations properly,” said the dispatch. “In this way,” it went on, “they may contribute to global peace and development, and help make the world, which is changing and turbulent, more stable, certain and constructive, added Xi.”The Xinhua dispatch was expressed in such polite, diplomatic terms as to suggest that China, suffering from economic difficulties and perhaps overextended militarily, really needs to focus on domestic problems while pulling back somewhat from its aggressive pursuit of power and influence all around its periphery. Mr. Xi left no doubt as to the importance of his meeting with Mr. Biden during the G-20 conference of the world’s 19 leading economic powers, plus the European Union, on the idyllic Indonesian island of Bali last November. Mr. Xi at the G-20 said “China-U.S. relations should not be a zero-sum game where you lose and I win, and you rise and I fall.” That was in response to Biden’s remark that China and America did not need to engage in “a new Cold War.”The Bali meeting was presented by Xinhua as a step toward mutual understanding. The Chinese news agency reported that “Xi pointed out that the two sides need to remain committed to the common understandings he and President Biden reached in Bali, and translate the positive statements into actions so as to stabilize and improve China-U.S. relations.”It was after the G-7 meeting in Hiroshima of leaders of the world’s seven leading industrial democracies that Mr. Biden downplayed the significance of what he called “this silly balloon that was carrying two freight cars worth of spying equipment” and predicted, “in terms of talking with them, I think you’re going to see that thaw very shortly.”

American Hopes for Rapprochement With Communist China Bear Little Fruit at Beijing Parley

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