Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit the United States on October 26 to 28 and meet his American counterparts, ahead of a proposed summit between the heads-of-state of China and the US next month.
Wang was invited by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to visit the US, Mao Ning, a spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Tuesday.
Mao said that, during his US trip, Wang will exchange views about Sino-US relations and regional matters that are of interest to both sides. She said Wang will also meet US representatives from different sectors to explain China’s concerns and principles in the two countries’ relationship.
She said China hopes the US will help implement an important consensus agreed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden in Bali in Indonesia last November and try to jointly promote China-US relations to return to the track of healthy and stable development.
The US Department of State said Monday that Blinken and Wang “will discuss a range of bilateral, regional and global issues as part of ongoing efforts to responsibly manage the US-China relationship and to maintain open channels of communication.”
The State Department added that the US will continue to use diplomacy to advance its interests and values, address areas of difference, and make progress on shared transnational challenges.
Washington officials told the US media that one of Wang’s key missions will be to prepare for a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden during the the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in San Francisco on November 15-17.
They said Wang will also meet Biden’s national security advisor Jake Sullivan during his US trip but it’s unclear whether he will be able to meet Biden this time.
Charm offensive
China has recently launched a charm offensive to pave the way for the proposed Xi-Biden meeting, according to a report published by the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
The report said academic exchanges between China and the US have increased recently while Chinese basketball player Yao Ming is visiting New York this week. During the United Nations General Assembly in September, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng called for investment into China.
The report said Beijing wants to create a “less highly charged” environment ahead of the Xi-Biden summit.
However, the US and China still hold different views on regional conflicts.
After Hamas militants launched terrorist attacks that killed 1,400 people in Israel on October 7, Blinken held an hour-long phone call with Wang on October 14 and called on China to use its influence to push for calm in the Middle East.
But until now, Beijing has not condemned Hamas for its attack but only called on all parties to cease fire and hold talks.
Liu Qingbin, a former professor at Yokohama National University’s Institute of Advanced Sciences in Japan, says in an article that the Israel-Hamas conflict will be a key topic for the Wang-Blinken meeting.
“China is the only third party that can speak to both sides of the regional conflicts, from the Ukrainian-Russian crisis to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” Liu says – crediting “our consistent objective and neutral stance.”
“Whether it is Russia-Ukraine, Palestine-Israel or the Korean Peninsula issue, the US is a key third party deeply involved in it, and it also wants to win over China to change its position,” he says. “Although its goal is unlikely to be realized, these incidents showed that both China and the US have their roles in global issues and are willing to compromise, rather than moving in opposite directions.”
‘No selfish interests’
On Monday, Wang told Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in a phone call that Israel’s legitimate security concerns will be thoroughly resolved only by a political settlement with Palestine. He claimed that the two-state solution is the consensus of the international community.
“China has no selfish interests on the Palestinian question and sincerely hopes that a comprehensive and fair solution to the Palestinian question can be found on the basis of the two-state solution,” he said. “China will firmly support anything conducive to peace, and will exert its utmost to do anything conducive to the reconciliation between Palestine and Israel.”
Also on Monday, Wang had a phone call with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki, who expressed heartfelt thanks to China for “upholding justice, sending out a clear and strong message, standing firmly with the Palestinian people and providing emergency humanitarian assistance for Palestine.”
Apart from sharing views on regional conflicts, Wang will call on the US to take concrete actions to respond to China’s concerns during his trip.
In recent months, Chinese officials have repeatedly expressed concerns to their US counterparts about the extra tariffs, company sanctions, investment restrictions, export controls and Xinjiang product bans imposed by the US on China in recent years. They have also called on the US to stop its arms sales to Taiwan.
Washington has not yet agreed to any of these demands. On October 17, it sanctioned two Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) makers – Beijing Biren Technology and Moore Thread Intelligent Technology – and updated its export rules to prevent Chinese firms from obtaining the most advanced AI chips.
On Tuesday, the China-US Economic Working Group held its first meeting via video link, according to the Chinese finance ministry.
The ministry said the two sides had “in-depth, candid and constructive” discussion on the macroeconomic situation and policies, and bilateral economic relations and cooperation. It said China had expressed its concerns during the virtual meeting.
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