Xi says agreement reached on ‘some specific issues’ with US
Beijing: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday met with Chinese President Xi Jinping who said that an agreement on “some specific issues” has been reached during the extensive talks between the top diplomats of the two countries amidst tense ties.
Blinken met Xi on the last day of his two-day high-stakes visit to Beijing during which the Chinese president spoke of the agreement without providing any details.
Xi said that China’s top diplomat and Director of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi and Foreign Minister Qin Gang described their talks with Blinken as candid and in-depth.
The Chinese side has made its position clear, and the two sides have agreed to “follow through with the common understanding US President Joe Biden and I had reached in Bali,” state-run CGTN quoted President Xi as saying.
“The two sides also made progress and reached an agreement on some specific issues,” Xi said, without providing details.
“State-to-state interactions should always be based on mutual respect and sincerity. I hope that Secretary Blinken, through this visit, could make a positive contribution to stabilising China-US relations,” he said.
Blinken’s visit to China was among the key outcomes of the Xi-Biden meeting in which they agreed to work on improving ties.
Earlier, Blinken met top diplomat Wang, who urged the US to “reflect deeply” and manage differences with China while attributing worsening ties to Washington’s “erroneous perception” of Beijing.
Wang told Blinken that his trip to Beijing came at a “critical juncture” in US-China ties and it was “necessary to make a choice between dialogue and confrontation, cooperation and conflict”.
“Sino-US relations have experienced ups and downs, and it is necessary for the US to reflect deeply and work with China to jointly manage differences and avoid strategic surprises,” he said.
“With an attitude of being responsible to the people, history and the world, we must reverse the downward spiral of Sino-US relations, push for a return to a healthy and stable track and work together to find a correct way for China and the United States to get along in the new era,” he said.
Wang also urged the US not to assume China was seeking dominance, and not to “misjudge” Beijing based on the trajectories of traditional Western powers.
“This is key as to whether the US policy towards China can truly return to objectivity and rationality,” Wang said, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
Wang, who is Xi’s top foreign policy adviser, also called for the US to lift unilateral sanctions against China, stop the suppression of China’s technological development, and not interfere in Beijing’s internal affairs.
