The one positive development to emerge from the meeting between the Chinese President Xi Jinping and the US secretary of state Anthony J. Blinken is that China is willing to partially recant from the largely confrontational position it had held vis-a-vis the United States in the last few years. The message seems to be larger than the symbolism of Mr Xi meeting Mr Blinken in the Great Hall of the People even if China made it clear once again that security issues, including its position on the status of Taiwan, are beyond the pale of negotiations.
As with India, it has been China’s stance that good ties are possible in areas like trade even if contentious issues like China’s growing military footprint in the Indo-Pacific and US restrictions on China in high technology areas are to remain unaddressed. Mr Xi also made it a point to mention during his 35-minute meeting with Mr Blinken that certain “unspecified” issues had been addressed in Mr Blinken’s meetings with Chinese officials Wang Yi, who is a top foreign policy voice in Beijing, and the foreign minister Qin Gang. However, China drew a “wall” when it came to the US pressing it for more direct and open military-to-military communications.
It is heartening to envisage the top-level meetings of the week leading to further tamping down of tensions between the two superpowers, stoked by such factors as the Ukraine war started by Russia in February 2022, North Korea’s belligerence and the old saw about China’s human rights record in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong. There might be less of a deep chill if indeed the positiveness of the breakthrough visit leads to a meeting between the US and Chinese Presidents, said to be possible at a multilateral meet later this year.
Talks on global arms control, specifically the significant question of regulating AI in the deployment of nuclear weapons, seem fanciful at a time when the world is subsumed in the tensions of the Ukraine war. The US-China equations could change even more as the US heads for elections in 2024. There is, however, a sliver of hope that there could be minor shifts in an ultra-competitive environment. China, with its economy tightening, and the US need each other, regardless of how they position themselves in the world today.
