Choose between stability and ‘downward spiral,’ China tells Blinken during Beijing trip

CNN:

Chinese leader Xi Jinping said the US and China should be “partners rather than adversaries” as he met with top American diplomat Antony Blinken in Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People on Friday.

The meeting, which took place on the final day of Blinken’s three–day visit to China, comes as the two countries seek to continue to stabilize rocky relations and expand communication – including on a host of contentions from technology to Taiwan.

“China would like to see a confident, open and prosperous United States. We hope that the United States will view China’s development in a positive light,” Xi told Blinken.

“Once this fundamental problem is solved … Sino-US relations will truly get better and move forward,” he said. “China and the US should be partners rather than adversaries; help each other succeed rather than harm each other.”

Xi’s comments come as Chinese officials bristle at actions Washington has taken in the name of national security in the face of an increasingly assertive China, but which Beijing sees as meant to suppress its development. Those have included US controls on the export to China of high-tech goods that could have military uses, as well as curbs on US investment in certain high-tech sectors in China.

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden signed a bill that could lead to a nationwide ban on the social media platform TikTok if the company’s Chinese parent ByteDance doesn’t sell it – legislation Beijing has previously decried.

Blinken told Xi the US was “committed to maintain and strengthen lines of communications” with China and “deal responsibly with our differences, so we would not have any miscommunications, misperceptions and any miscalculations.”

Examples of recent progress Blinken cited included “restoring military-to-military communications, counternarcotics and thinking together about the futures of artificial intelligence.”

Their meeting followed five hours of face time between Blinken and counterpart Wang Yi, which both sides characterized as “substantive and constructive.”