Wang Yi meets Antony Blinken in Beijing
Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for talks across a range of complex issues. The top US diplomat is due to spend several hours with Wang across closed-door meetings at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse and a working lunch as the two sides try to maintain progress in ties. As the pair settled into their opening session, Wang told Blinken that the "great ship" of the China-US relationship had stabilised, "but negative factors in the relationship are still increasing and building". "And the relationship is facing all kinds of disruptions. China’s legitimate development rights have been unreasonably suppressed and our core interests are facing challenges," he said. Blinken replied that "active diplomacy" was needed to move forward with the agenda set by President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden when they met in San Francisco in November. "There's no substitute in our judgement for face-to-face diplomacy," Blinken said, adding that he wanted to ensure that "we’re as clear as possible about the areas where we have differences, at the very least to avoid misunderstandings, to avoid miscalculations". US State Department officials signalled ahead of the sessions that China's support for Russia would feature strongly, saying that Washington is prepared to act against Chinese companies that have been helping retool and resupply Russia's defence industry. Chinese officials and state media have cast doubt over the extent of possible progress on several fronts, with a China Daily editorial saying that both sides "have been largely talking past each other". "On the conflict in Ukraine, the world can see it clearly that the Ukraine issue is not an issue between China and the US; and the US side should not turn it into one," it said. (Reuters)