Blinken Presses China’s Top Diplomat on Ukraine

“The relationship between the United States and China is highly consequential for our countries, but also for the world,” Mr. Blinken mentioned.

After a number of months of being consumed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden administration officers have been focusing anew on China, which they name the highest long-term strategic menace to the United States.

Jake Sullivan, the nationwide safety adviser, met final month in Europe with Yang Jiechi, one other senior Chinese diplomat; and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III noticed his Chinese counterpart just a few days later in Singapore. This month, Janet L. Yellen, the Treasury secretary, held a videoconference with a Chinese vice premier, Liu He. And the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, spoke by telephone final week along with his counterpart, Li Zuocheng.

Danny Russel, a former senior State Department official who’s a vp on the Asia Society, a coverage institute, mentioned the large query now was whether or not President Biden and Mr. Xi would have their first in-person assembly, most definitely on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit scheduled for November in Indonesia.

“Both sides seem to think that leveraging the personal relationship between Biden and Xi would go a long way to stabilizing the relationship at a time of turbulence for both the U.S. and China,” Mr. Russel mentioned. “There are no guarantees that these efforts will succeed, and neither side is likely to be public about their plans, but it certainly feels as if there is a convergence around the idea of a face-to-face meeting.”

Linda Jakobson, deputy chair and founding director of China Matters, an impartial suppose tank in Australia, mentioned that each the United States and China had causes to enhance their relationship. One of these, she mentioned, was the worldwide economic system, which not solely threatens Mr. Biden’s Democratic Party within the midterm elections in November, but in addition Mr. Xi’s bid for a 3rd time period as president on the Chinese Communist Party’s congress this fall.