Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded his trip to Beijing in a meeting with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping on Monday that did little to improve Americans’ confidence in the Biden administration’s ability to manage U.S.-China relations.
Heading into the summit, the administration was hoping to reestablish communications between the U.S. and Chinese militaries. Despite purportedly reaching an agreement on “some specific issues,” the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ultimately declined to meet that main request, placing the blame for the ongoing dispute on U.S. sanctions.
That failure wasn’t the only embarrassment for the Biden administration. As described by CNN’s Jim Sciutto, Xi used an “almost scolding tone” when addressing Blinken prior to their meeting, in which he stated “something along the lines of, ‘I hope you … and America will do more to improve the [Sino-American] relationship.’”
Xi was “clearly putting the onus on the U.S. and therefore implying it’s the U.S. that has been the problem,” Sciutto said.
The more notable aspect of Monday’s summit, however, came during a Blinken press conference following the meeting, in which the U.S. secretary of state effectively played footsie with the Chinese government. While addressing reporters, Blinken said: “One of the important things for me to do on this trip was to disabuse [the] Chinese … of the notion that we are seeking to economically contain them.”
“We’re not … I also noted to our — our hosts, that China’s broad economic success is also in our interest,” he added.
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