Antony Blinken | US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing dgtl

Just 10 months ago, during the Washington-Beijing tension over Taiwan, he told Xi Jinping on a visit to China that America believes in the ‘One China’ principle, not an independent Taiwan. His statement played a significant role in easing bilateral tensions.

Anthony Blinken, the foreign secretary of the Joe Biden government, went to Beijing again on Friday with the Chinese president. After that, he said, “America and China should be partners, not enemies.” However, the US Secretary of State also said that many things need to be reformed to improve the relationship between the two countries.

New bilateral tensions arose after then-Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taiwan in August 2022, dismissing China’s objections. At that time, Chinese warplanes began to violate Taiwan’s airspace continuously. Amid the Sino-Taiwan crisis, several warships from the US Seventh Fleet also entered the Taiwan Strait at that time. Beijing reacted strongly to that at that time.

Blinken’s visit was instrumental in easing tensions under those circumstances. After a meeting with Blinken at Beijing’s ‘Graph Hall of People’ on Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping also called for better relations with Washington. He said, “After my meeting with US President Joe Biden, positive progress has been made towards the normalization of relations between the two countries. But there is scope to take this effort much further.”