US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up his three-day visit to China on Friday, bringing home a five-point consensus between the two sides on non-core issues.

Given the severe and irreconcilable differences between China and the United States on the significant issues in bilateral relations, there’s no way Blinken’s trip could achieve positive results on those issues. Perhaps, for this reason, China “unprecedentedly” announced five demands on Blinken on the eve of his visit to lower expectations. 

The head of the North American and Oceanian Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry pointed out that China hoped to focus on and achieve five significant goals through Blinken’s visit. 

The first was to expect the US to establish a correct understanding of China and take practical actions to implement US President Joe Biden’s commitment -- the US will not seek to engage in a “new cold war”, change China’s system, contain China’s development, and strengthen alliances to oppose it. 

It does not support “Taiwan independence”, has no intention of conflict with China, and does not seek “decoupling” from China. The second was strengthening dialogue between the two sides at all levels. 

China’s door to dialogue and communication was always open. At the same time, the US must realize it cannot communicate for the sake of communication and cannot say one thing and do another. 

The third was effectively managing differences between China and the US, especially on issues involving Taiwan, the South China Sea and economic, trade and technological fields. 

The US should abandon the “Cold War” mentality and seek common ground while agreeing to disagree with China. 

The fourth was to continue to promote mutually beneficial cooperation, including in areas where progress had already been made, such as drug control, law enforcement, technology, artificial intelligence, agriculture, health and climate change. 

Fifth, the two sides should work together to shoulder the responsibilities of great powers and become responsible great powers on hot issues such as the Middle East, Ukraine and the Korean Peninsula. Overall, by elaborating on these five goals, China expounded its expectations for Blinken’s visit to China and clarified its firm position.

Almost all Chinese and American observers did not have high hopes for Blinken’s visit and expected that he would leave China without success. 

In addition to believing that both sides would not make concessions to each other on matters of strategic interests, they also noted that the US’ recent slew of unfriendly and disrespectful actions against China had messed up the atmosphere of negotiations between the two sides. 

These actions include accusing China of exporting “excess” production capacity, aiding Russia’s defense industry by exporting tools, components and materials that can be used for military production, and “unreasonable and discriminatory behavior” in the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding industries. The US had launched a Section 301 trade investigation in this regard. 

The US also instigated the Philippines to provoke China on maritime disputes, kept on vilifying Hong Kong’s Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, passed a law to force ByteDance to sell its TikTok US operation or face a ban in the US, and provided military aid to Taiwan. 

US officials had also hinted to the media that the US was considering expelling Chinese banks that supported Russian trade from the SWIFT and dollar systems. All these hostile actions against China have created many difficulties for Blinken’s trip.

In fact, during his meeting with Blinken on Friday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi issued a stern warning: “Negative factors in China-US relations are still rising, and accumulating, bringing to the fore various disruptions. 

China’s legitimate right to development has been unreasonably suppressed, and China’s core interests are constantly being challenged.”

He added: “Whether China and the US will stick to the right path of stability and move forward or repeat the mistakes of the downward spiral is a major issue facing the two countries. The international community is waiting to see whether the two sides will lead international cooperation to deal with global issues and achieve a win-win situation, or they will confront each other and even break out into conflict, resulting in a lose-lose situation for both sides. Our position is consistent, and we always adhere to the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation proposed by President Xi Jinping. We are committed to promoting the stable, healthy, and sustainable development of China-US relations. China has always advocated respect for each other’s core interests, and the US should not interfere in China’s internal affairs, suppress China’s development, and not step on China’s red lines when it comes to China’s sovereignty, security, and development interests.”

Wang’s words were an expression of dissatisfaction and regret for the recent series of unfriendly actions by the US against China. He also believes the US has not acted according to the “San Francisco Vision” reached by the heads of state of both countries in November last year, making it difficult for China-US relations to advance significantly.

In response to Wang’s remarks, Blinken said both sides need to engage in “active diplomacy” to advance the agenda set by Biden and Xi in November. Blinken pointed out at a press conference later that China has made significant progress on the fentanyl issue. 

However, there was still more work to do. He reiterated the US wanted China to grow economically, but the way of growth was essential and required a level playing field. 

He also said he had expressed to the Chinese side Washington’s concerns about the South China Sea controversy, reiterated the US’ commitment to defend the Philippines, expressed Washington’s hope that China would play a constructive role in global crises, including “preventing Iran and its proxies from expanding conflicts” in the Middle East, as well as its concern about China’s support for Russia.

Later on the same day, President Xi highlighted the principles on China-US relations when he met with Blinken in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, saying “the two countries should be partners, not rivals; they should achieve mutual success, not harm each other; they should seek common ground while reserving differences, instead of vicious competition; they should be true to their words and be resolute in deeds, rather than saying one thing and doing another”.

“I have proposed three major principles: mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. The summary of experience is also a guide to the future”, Xi said, adding that “China hopes to see a confident, open, prosperous and developing US”.

Judging from the speeches of Xi and Wang, China’s dissatisfaction and disappointment with the current situation of China-US relations are palpable, and they point out that the blame lies with the US. It is precisely because the US does not accept China’s rise and development, is unwilling to coexist peacefully with China, and does not intend to share international responsibilities with China. Instead, the US tries every means to contain China, and supports and shields the “Taiwan independence” forces. It is difficult for China-US relations to have substantive improvement.

Regarding Xi’s and Wang’s criticism of the US, Blinken remained silent and did not dare to face China’s concerns directly.

It is true that although China-US relations have not significantly improved, the two countries have still resumed a certain degree of cooperation and exchanges on some practical issues, which would help alleviate tensions, manage differences, and avoid miscalculations, including anti-drug collaboration, communications between the two militaries, and conversations about AI risks and safety. 

After the talks between Blinken and Wang, the two sides reached a five-point consensus on practical matters, including holding the first meeting of the China-US Intergovernmental Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence, advancing consultations on the guiding principles of China-US relations, and holding a new round of China-US consultations on Asia-Pacific affairs. 

China-US consultations on maritime affairs will continue, and so will China-US consular consultations. The China-US anti-drug working group will hold a senior officials’ meeting. The US welcomes the visit of Liu Zhenmin, China’s special envoy for climate change affairs, to the US. 

The two sides agreed to accelerate the implementation of the critical consensus reached by the two heads of state at their meeting in San Francisco, decided to maintain high-level exchanges and contacts at all levels, continue to play the role of the restored and newly established advisory mechanisms in the fields of diplomacy, economy, finance, business and other fields, and continue to carry out exchanges between the two militaries, and further promote China-US cooperation on drug control, climate change and AI. 

The two sides agreed to expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two countries, welcome students from each other’s countries, organize the China-US high-level tourism dialogue in Xi’an in May, maintain consultations on international and regional hot issues, and strengthen communication between the two sides’ special envoys.

In the current international environment and China-US relations, the US was unlikely to think that Blinken’s visit to China would achieve major progress on significant issues. The interesting question is: Why did Blinken still accepted Wang’s invitation to visit China? 

One reason is that the heads of state of China and the US had agreed at their meeting in San Francisco last year that officials from both sides should maintain communication on various issues. 

Xi told Blinken: “Mr secretary of state’s visit was decided upon when Biden and I talked on the phone a few weeks ago.” Therefore, Blinken’s visit should be a standard action to implement the consensus the two heads of state had reached. 

Blinken must visit Beijing even if no significant result can be achieved. Otherwise, it will arouse a lot of unwelcome speculation that is not conducive to the relationship between the two sides. 

Blinken’s trip to China tellingly reflected that although Xi and Biden had reached a “consensus” on improving relations between the two countries at their meeting in San Francisco, the US had failed to take positive actions to implement this “consensus” and instead did the opposite. 

This will make it difficult for China-US relations to achieve a substantial breakthrough. From now to the November US presidential election, the anti-China fury in both parties in the US and within the country is likely to become fiercer, and the US is very likely to take further anti-China actions. 

China-US relations are likely to deteriorate further, especially if Washington pampers Taiwan’s upcoming new leader Lai Ching-te and the “Taiwan independence” forces he represents. How Washington handles the Taiwan question will be the best litmus test for its sincerity in implementing the “San Francisco Vision.” If the US mishandles the Taiwan question, the prospects for Sino-US relations will be gloomy and worrisome.

The author is a professor emeritus of sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; and consultant of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.