Blinken will be latest senior US official to visit China in bid to keep ties on equal footing

The rivals are at odds on many fronts, including Russia's war in Ukraine, Taiwan and the United States. South China Sea, North Korea, Hong Kong, human rights and detention of American citizens. The United States and China are also fighting over trade issues, with President Joe Biden announcing new customs duties on Chinese steel imports last week.

The State Department said Saturday that Blinken, on his second visit to China in less than a year, will travel to Shanghai and Beijing starting Wednesday for three days of meetings with senior Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Talks between Blinken and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected, although neither side will confirm that such a meeting will take place shortly before then.

The department said in a statement that Blinken would discuss a range of bilateral, regional and global issues, including the Middle East, the war in Ukraine, the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

He will also discuss progress in resuming counter-narcotics cooperation, military-to-military communication, artificial intelligence and strengthening people-to-people ties, and reaffirm how important it is for The United States and China to manage competition responsibly, even in areas where our two countries disagree, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

The trip follows a phone call this month between Biden and Xi in which they pledged to keep high-level contacts open, something they agreed to last year at a face-to-face summit. face to face in California. Since this call, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited China and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke on the phone with his Chinese counterpart. Meetings at lower levels also took place.

Despite these encounters, relationships are difficult. The United States has recently become more vocal in its calls for China to stop supporting Russia's military-industrial sector, which Washington says has allowed Moscow to increase its weapons production to support the country. war against Ukraine.

We see China sharing machine tools, semiconductors and other dual-use goods that have helped Russia rebuild the defense industrial base that sanctions and export controls had done so much to degrade, Blinken said Friday. However, if China claims to want good relations with Europe and other countries, it cannot, on the other hand, fuel what constitutes the greatest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War .

Blinken also pushed China to take a more active stance in pressuring Iran not to escalate. tensions in the Middle East. He has spoken with his Chinese counterpart several times since the war between Israel and Hamas began six months ago, as he sought China's help in getting Iran to restrict proxy groups which he supported, armed and financed in the region.

This subject has taken on new urgency since the direct exchanges Iran attacks and Israel on each other's soil over the past week.

Taiwan and the South China Sea will also be among Blinken's priorities.

The United States has strongly condemned Chinese military exercises threatening Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province, and vowed to reunify it with the mainland by force if necessary. Successive U.S. administrations have gradually increased their military support and sales to Taipei, much to the dismay of Chinese officials.

In the South China Sea, the United States and others are increasingly concerned about China's provocative actions in and around disputed areas. In particular, the United States has expressed objections to what it sees as Chinese attempts to thwart the legitimate activities of other countries in the waterway, including the Philippines and Vietnam.

This was a major concern earlier this month when Biden held a three-way summit with the Prime Minister of Japan and the President of the Philippines.