Blinken in China: Chinese Experts React

A positive step but no fundamental change in US-China relations

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has just completed his long-anticipated visit to China where he met with president Xi Jinping, foreign minister Qin Gang and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi as well as a number of other officials. His trip had previously been postponed due to an alleged Chinese spy balloon that flew over the US. It was subsequently shot down, marking a new low in US-China relations.

Blinken’s visit has, of course, been followed by a torrent of commentaries in China. The ones shared below provide a fairly representative overview of those by Chinese international relations experts over the past few days. As so often in China, domestic political constraints play a part in the relative uniformity of these views.

N.B. All of these were expressed before Joe Biden called Xi Jinping a “dictator”, a day after Blinken’s meeting with Xi. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated yesterday that Biden’s comments “seriously violate basic facts, diplomatic protocols and …