Blinken started his visit to the financial metropolis of Shanghai on Wednesday, where he will meet both American students and the business community, as well as watch a basketball match between two Chinese teams with Americans in the squad.
This is the soft part of the trip, and Blinken will emphasize the good relations between the Americans and the Chinese, sources in the US government say.
The last time the US Secretary of State visited China was in June last year, but then the trip was only to Beijing. The tension between the world’s two largest economies has noticeably eased since then, writes the AFP news agency.
More contact
According to analysts, the visit to Shanghai would have been unthinkable a year ago. At that time, relations between China and the United States were almost at zero. But since then several initiatives have been taken to keep the dialogue going between two great powers that compete intensely both geopolitically and not least economically.
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US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also visited China a couple of weeks ago. The American defense chief has also spoken to his Chinese counterpart on the phone, in addition to the fact that President Joe Biden recently had a phone conversation with China’s leader Xi Jinping.
After Shanghai, Blinken travels on to Beijing, where the difficult conversations take place. The US and China are on a collision course both in terms of relations with Russia and the sea areas in the Pacific, and not least Taiwan. The fear is that the differences are about to become so great that they will be able to create both security-related and economic instability in the world.
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Unrest for exports to Russia
In Beijing, the discussions will, among other things, revolve around China’s exports to Russia. Beijing does not supply the Russians with weapons, but the Americans strongly dislike Chinese raw materials and technology finding their way into the Russian arms industry.
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Among other things, this contributes to western sanctions against Russia being far less effective than they would otherwise be. According to US officials, this is one of the most important questions Blinken raises.
– If China on the one hand wants to have a good relationship with Europe and other countries, they cannot on the other hand fire up what is the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War, Blinken said last week.
As for the Middle East, the US has asked China to use whatever influence it may have on Iran to prevent Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip from ending up in a larger regional conflict. Here China seems to be more in line with the USA, not least because China is heavily dependent on oil imports from Iran and other countries in the Middle East.
Taiwan and the South China Sea
More conflict-ridden, however, is the issue of Taiwan and China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, which have contributed to China ending up on a collision course with several of its Asian neighbours, including the US-backed Philippines.
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On Monday, the United States and the Philippines began what is being described as the largest ever military exercise in the South China Sea.
China, for its part, has begun to act increasingly aggressively in sea areas over which it claims control. The same applies to Taiwan, which China has threatened to invade if the Taiwanese government were to declare the island an independent state.
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The United States is Taiwan’s main military backer, although it does not officially have diplomatic ties with the democratically-ruled island. As recently as Tuesday, Congress approved a total of $95 billion in military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
The grant immediately led to sharp criticism in Beijing.
– It will only increase tensions and the risk of conflict across the Taiwan Strait, and it will ultimately mean shooting oneself in the foot, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Wednesday, shortly before Blinken landed in Shanghai.
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Trade and human rights
The discussion in Beijing will also focus on trade disputes and human rights, according to US officials.
The US accuses China of giving Chinese industry unfair advantages, while China accuses the US of hindering Chinese business with tariffs and export bans. This applies, among other things, to China’s access to high-tech components, and China’s ability to export, among other things, electric cars.
Also when it comes to human rights issues, the distance is very large. The US accuses China of gross human rights violations against the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang in western China, as well as against the population of Tibet and Hong Kong. China rejects all accusations and considers the criticism untimely interference in the country’s internal affairs.
Several European visits
Several other Western leaders and ministers have recently visited China, including Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide (Ap), who, like Blinken, visited both Beijing and Shanghai
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Both German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte have also been in Beijing in recent weeks.
In November, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited his American counterpart Joe Biden in California. Among other things, the two agreed to restore contact between their respective defences.
Xi also promised to control the sale of chemicals used in the production of fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid that many Americans have become addicted to in recent years.
