February 17, 2023

U.S. and Chinese officials have spent the last few days locked in last-minute negotiations to broker a meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of this weekend’s Munich Security Conference, according to three people familiar with those efforts.

Beijing’s condition that the U.S. formally request the meeting had slowed progress in the talks, said a Washington, D.C.-based diplomat with knowledge of the discussions.

“It’s a two-way discussion to land a meeting,” the diplomat said, adding that the Biden administration “won’t bend the knee” to get the meeting.

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