Highlights 

• Blinken's visit to China marked a significant moment in the bilateral relations between China and the United States.
• The visit aimed to address the growing tensions and challenges between the two countries.
• During the visit, Blinken met with top Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
• Both sides expressed willingness to engage in constructive dialogue and manage their differences.
• The discussions primarily focused on issues such as trade, human rights, cybersecurity, and regional security.
• While there were no major breakthroughs or agreements reached, the visit provided an opportunity for both sides to exchange views and concerns.
• The United States raised concerns over China's human rights record, particularly regarding Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

In the weeks leading up to Antony Blinken's trip to China on June 18-19, 2023, there was a lot of uncertainty in both China and the United States regarding the visit's purpose and potential outcomes. It wasn't even clear if Blinken would be able to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping when he left Washington, D.C. He did.

The meeting took place just two weeks after a Chinese naval ship crossed the Taiwan strait within 150 yards of a US destroyer in what the US military called an "unsafe maritime interaction." It was not a one-off occurrence. A Chinese fighter jet flew dangerously close to a U.S. surveillance plane over the South China Sea three weeks before Blinken and Xi sat down.

At a time when relations between the two countries were already strained, these close interactions between the two exacerbated the situation, which is not surprising.

During a campaign fundraiser on June 20, 2023, just one day after Blinken returned to the United States, President Joe Biden referred to Xi as a dictator. This demonstrates how rocky the relationship between the two countries is. China has already responded, calling the remarks "extremely absurd and irresponsible."

I closely follow U.S.-China relations, including territorial and maritime disputes, as a scholar of international relations with a focus on Indo-Pacific security issues.

To demonstrate the international right to free transit, the United States regularly sails ships and flies planes in the South China Sea's disputed waters and airspace. However, China denounces U.S. activities in what it views as its domestic domain and claims both areas as its own territorial waters.

Since the last U.S. secretary of state's visit to China in 2018, there have been a number of barriers to communication. China and the United States have had a tense and uncertain relationship for a number of years, but this year has seen the worst relations since diplomatic relations began in 1979.

Political and security relations between the two powers have significantly deteriorated, despite the existence of ongoing economic ties. The current tensions are as a result of both nations' recurrent condemnations of one another for a variety of reasons.

The relationship between the United States and China is certainly one of fierce rivalry, despite the fact that a new cold war is unlikely. Blinken traveled to China in this setting.

The Blinken visit made it possible for the two countries to talk more seriously about how to reduce tensions. However, in other respects, it was more symbolic of the tenuous and uncertain relationship that exists between the two most powerful nations in the world.

The primary objective of the official trip was to reestablish regular communication. However, the talks were a fruitful first step on the long road back to diplomacy when the countries agreed to resume regular communication.

The laborious work begins now. Other U.S. officials, like Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, climate ambassador John Kerry, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, whose request to meet with Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu at a security conference in Singapore in May 2023 was turned down by China, will be able to meet with their counterparts more easily. On their plans will be issues going from worries about imports and products to staying away from the outfitted struggle.

We won't know for a while whether Blinken's primary objective, which was to arrange a meeting between Xi and Biden in 2023, was achieved.

The diplomatic visit was, in my opinion, a positive step toward addressing a growing number of pressing bilateral issues. But before a more precise picture of the state of the relationship between the United States and China emerges, it will take more time and much more communication.

In place of the on-and-off meetings that have taken place over the past five years, this will require ongoing dialogue. Even so, the Chinese approach to diplomacy is opaque and frequently features a disconnect between what is claimed and what is done, whereas the United States government appears to be direct and transparent about its foreign policy, putting its stated policies into action. Foreign policy documents are rarely made public by the Chinese government, and speeches given by government officials tend to be deliberately vague and vague. In this rivalry, uncertainty is the name of the game for at least one team.

There are numerous disputes and issues between the two countries:

• China claims that U.S. support for Taiwan "seriously infringes upon China's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
• The United States' position that international law guarantees freedom of the sea is in conflict with Chinese territorial and maritime claims in the East and South China Seas.
• China is enraged by U.S. and a number of allies' national security-based restrictions on the importation of Chinese-made semiconductor chips and certain technology exports to China.
• U.S. condemnation of Chinese economic coercion in countries around the world, including the provision of low-interest loans and the subsequent acquisition of a port or other infrastructure if the nation is unable to repay the loan on time.
• United States criticism of China's violations of human rights in Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang.
• The New York Times says that China may be able to intercept electronic signals from U.S. military and commercial buildings due to the existing Chinese spy base in Cuba.
• Recent collisions in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea between American and Chinese vessels.

The official U.S. national security strategy will continue to cite China as the most comprehensive and serious threat to the United States, even if diplomatic relations improve. Tensions remain the relationship's only certainty in this century of rivalry between the United States and China.