In DC, Wang Yi meets Blinken, calls for comprehensive US-China dialogue

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi kicked off his Washington DC visit on Thursday by calling for a “comprehensive” and “in-depth” dialogue between the US and China to reduce misunderstanding and misjudgment and expand common ground.

For its part, the US State Department has said that Wang’s visit is a part of the effort to maintain open lines of communication and “responsibly manage” US-China ties, while reiterating that US will continue to stand for its interests and values and that of its allies and partners.

Wang was speaking to reporters before a meeting with the Secretary of State Antony J Blinken at the historic State Department building in the US capital. His visit to US comes in the backdrop of enhanced engagement between the two countries at various levels, with multiple American cabinet members, including Blinken, having visited Beijing this year. It is also aimed to setting the stage for a meeting between US President Joe Biden and China’s president Xi Jinping in November in San Francisco, on the sidelines of the APEC summit, in mid-November.

The Chinese foreign minister is also the director of the Chinese Communist Party’s central foreign affairs commission, giving him a dual role in both determining the party line on the relationship with US and an official role in executing it. In a sign of the importance accorded to him, US media reports suggest that President Joe Biden will see Wang when the foreign minister visits White House to meet with US national security advisor Jake Sullivan later on Friday.

In a statement after the Wang-Blinken meeting on Thursday, which continued on Friday, the State Department said, “The Secretary and Director and Foreign Minister Wang discussed a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including addressing areas of difference as well as exploring areas of cooperation. The Secretary reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners.”

But before the meeting, in a sign of the challenges that remain embedded in the US-China competition and the difficult conversations both sides are having, Wang acknowledged that China and the US had “disagreements” and “differences” but also shared “common interests” and “challenges” they needed to face together.

“Therefore, China and the United States need to have dialogue. Not only should we resume dialogue, the dialogue should be in-depth and comprehensive so that with dialogue we can increase mutual understanding, reduce misunderstanding and misjudgment, constantly seek to expand common ground and pursue cooperation that will benefit both sides so that we can stabilize China-US relations and return it to the track of healthy, stable, and sustainable development,” the Chinese minister said.

Wang added, in Blinken’s presence, that there will be “jarring voices” in the US-China relationship and when that happened, China treated it “calmly” because it believed that what was right and wrong was not determined by who had a “stronger arm and louder voice” but if one behaved in line with past US-China understandings, international law, international norms and the climate of the times.

The US has stepped up its engagement with China this year. But it has also simultaneously pursued a set of competitive actions, from continuing to expand technology export restrictions to China and invest in alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific.

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