June 19, 2023

Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his first of two days of meetings in Beijing on Sunday with rhetoric suggesting that the two countries are taking steps to curb the bilateral acrimony that has curdled the U.S.-China relationship.

Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang emerged from their meeting with twin readouts describing that encounter as “candid and constructive.” Blinken secured an agreement from Qin to continue their discussions in Washington “at a mutually suitable time.” Both Blinken and Qin stressed the need for the two countries to improve people-to-people contacts that Qin said should include educational exchanges and an expansion of passenger flights between the two countries.

That language suggests that both Blinken and Qin are inching toward an off-ramp from months of rancor that Qin said had driven bilateral ties to “their lowest level since the establishment of diplomatic relations” in 1979. The fallout over a Chinese spy balloon found traversing the continental United States scuttled Blinken’s originally scheduled trip in February and imposed a months-long effective freeze on high-level official contacts.

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