Blinken meets China’s top diplomat in final day of high stakes visit to Beijing

INA-source
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sat down with China’s top diplomat on the final day of a high stakes visit to Beijing aimed at stabilizing relations, which cratered in the wake of a dispute over a Chinese surveillance balloon.
 
All eyes are on whether Washington’s envoy will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping later in the day for what could be a crucial step in patching fractured ties.
 
The global powers are increasingly at loggerheads and there is widespread international interest in whether Blinken’s trip can secure a cooling of tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
 
Blinken and China’s top diplomatic counterpart Wang Yi began talks Monday morning, posing for photos at Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guesthouse before heading into closed door discussions.
 
Both sides have come into the visit – the first by a US Secretary of State to China in five years – with an expressed goal of course correcting their relationship, which has been deeply strained by a host of issues ranging from Beijing’s close ties with Moscow to American efforts to limit the sale of advanced technologies to China.
 
Monday is expected to be a key test for how far the two powers can go to stabilize their fractured lines of communication, which have broken down over the past year, especially when it comes to high-level military exchanges – raising concerns in Washington that a mistake or accident could quickly spin into conflict.
Source-CNN