High stakes critical time.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken
wrapping up a two day visit
to China to help
repair the fractured relationship
between Washington and Beijing
and get the two superpowers
talking again.
Blinken spoke a short time
after meeting with President Xi Jinping.
With regard
to crisis
communications and military
and military channels,
this is also something that I raised
repeatedly during this trip.
I think
it's absolutely vital
that we have these kind of communications
military to military.
That imperative, I think, was only
underscored by recent incidents
that we saw in the air and on the seas.
And
at this moment,
China has not agreed
to move forward with that
I think that's an issue
that we have to keep working on.
CNN national security correspondent
Kylie Atwood is in Beijing
and joins us now.
So both sides really kind of downplaying
any big breakthroughs here
during Blinken's visit.
Is there a sense, though,
that this was successful in
terms of a first step, Kylie
I think that's exactly it, Erica.
The secretary of state
called this
a healthy dialog, said it was
candid, said it was constructive.
Basically, what he was able
to do
over the course of the last
two days here in Beijing
was really effectively engage
his Chinese counterparts,
something that he hasn't done here
in Beijing. To date.
This was his first visit to China
as secretary of state,
the first Biden
cabinet official to visit China.
But we really should note
that they didn't make progress
on one of the key issues
that the Biden administration was hoping
to push the ball forward.
That is military-to-military channels
of communication
between the US and China.
As you heard in that introduction,
the secretary told me
that that was something that he raised
repeatedly with his Chinese counterparts
here in Beijing.
He said it is critical
to establish those channels,
but it's not something
that China agreed to do.
On this visit, he says.
That is something that the United States
will continue working on.
And I asked him
why the United States
would be sending other U.S.
officials to China in the coming weeks
if they wouldn't agree
to these military to military channels,
because he did say that
there is the expectation
for further administration officials
to visit Beijing.
He essentially said that,
you know,
there needs to be engagement
between the two sides.
Diplomacy
and talking to one
another is more effective
than not having those conversations
when it comes to the war in Ukraine.
The secretary said
that China has said
that it will not provide
lethal aid
to Russia
to be used in the war in Ukraine.
You said that isn't a new position
necessarily for China.
But he reiterated concerns
to his Chinese counterparts
about Chinese companies
providing that lethal aid to Russia.
And then it's also important to note
when it comes to issues of
economic stability,
he said that he really sought
to make sure
that the Chinese knew
that the United States
isn't trying to contain them.
They're trying to make sure
that they take actions
that protect
the United States
in the realm of national security.
And that is leading
the Biden administration's policies
that have angered
the Chinese counterparts
in some areas,
specifically on semiconductors
and the like.
He also mentioned human rights.
The Americans
who are wrongfully detained here
in China, among other issues.
And of course, we'll watch
to see what happens
over the course of the following days
as this meeting
is really kind of digested in Washington.
Yes.
So important
and glad
that you were there
to ask those questions. Thank you.
Taiwan is
caught in the
middle of this complicated relationship.
Beijing's top foreign affairs
adviser says that there's no room
for compromise when it comes to Taiwan.
While Secretary Blinken says
the US position has not changed,
we're there to be a crisis
over Taiwan.
The likelihood is that that would produce
an economic crisis
that could affect
quite literally the entire world.
President Biden believes strongly
that one of the successful aspects
of our relationship with China going back
five decades has been
the responsible management
of the Taiwan question.
We continue to believe
that that's essential.
CNN's chief
national security correspondent
Jim Sciutto is with us now.
Jim, you were in Taiwan last week.
What's the Taiwan
government perspective on their role
in this tense relationship?
Well, frankly,
they're worried about getting caught
in the middle, right,
between two superpowers.
As they are.
And as was made clear
by this meeting
between Blinken
and she and other senior
Chinese officials,
it's good that they're talking.
But there is still a great distance
between the US and Washington,
between the U.S.
and China on the Taiwan issue.
Taiwan taking the threat
of Chinese military action
very seriously.
They're preparing every day.
I watched
military exercises there, preparing
for the possibility
of a Chinese invasion,
but they're deliberately
trying to avoid provoking China
They prefer the status quo.
They don't want it to escalate.
And they,
of course, have a hand
in that their own actions.
But they also worry
about the hands
of other superpowers, China and the U.S.
here.
It's good that China and the U.S.
are talking about this issue,
but in their public comments, you see
there is still great distance.
Secretary Blinken
accused China of provocative actions
in the Taiwan Strait,
placing the blame on China.
For instance,
we saw Chinese a Chinese jet
fly close to a US surveillance aircraft.
Recently,
a Chinese warship
sailed close to a US warship recently.
And then you have China on the other side
basically warning the US away
from any upset
to the one-China policy, as it's known.
So big picture.
On the issue of Taiwan, good that
the super superpowers are talking here,
but those talks show
there's still a lot of distance there.
And one specific point,
as Kylie was noting, the U.S.
wanted to come out of these meetings
with an agreement
on military to military contacts
so that those incidents,
as we've seen recently, don't escalate
into something bigger.
They didn't leave with an agreement
on such contacts.
Important
that there was no progress on that,
no immediate progress,
according to the secretary.
Jim Sciutto, thanks. Thanks.
Joining us now,
the president of the Eurasia Group,
Ian Bremmer.
Good to see you this morning.
Based on what we heard,
what we learned
from Secretary Blinken
calling this healthy,
candid, constructive,
saying to our own Kylie Atwood
that he had raised the matter
about communications channels,
specifically those military
to military communications
channels, raised it repeatedly.
There's no movement on that front.
What is your main takeaway
based on what
we're hearing
from both officials
in terms of how you would classify this
meeting and this trip
Well, first,
how I'd classify it would be positive.
The main takeaway,
which I haven't heard
anyone mentioned
yet, is the fact that President
Xi Jinping
decided to meet with Tony Blinken.
Tony is not the head of state.
He's secretary of state.
That is an intentional
and symbolically important move
by the Chinese government
to show a desire to continue
to work constructively
on the relationship.
And I firmly expect on the back of that
that Xi Jinping will be coming
to the United States
absent any sudden crisis, to the APEC
summit in San Francisco
this fall, where President Biden
intends to be for a couple of days.
So that
that's what everyone
is going to be focusing on
and talking about for the future.
But as you suggest,
the reality is that we do not have any
high level
military to military ties
We don't have arms agreements
with the Chinese
as they are dramatically expanding
their nuclear capabilities,
their advanced defense
capabilities, their A.I.
capabilities, in national security.
And as we've seen in the past few weeks,
there have been a couple of near-miss,
intentional provocations.
Accidents in the Taiwan Straits
and in the South China Sea.
And if the Americans
and Chinese
end up directly in conflict by mistake,
we don't have the level of trust
or engagement
on the defense side
to try to bring down those tensions.
So the relationship
is incredibly important.
It's also becoming more dangerous.
Secretary Blinken says that the US
and other countries
have received assurances
from the Chinese government
that they would not be providing
lethal aid to Russia
in their war on Ukraine.
He did say that
they do not have that assurance
as it relates to Chinese companies.
Without that assurance
about the companies
and sending components potentially
What's the assurance from
the government worth
Well, it's worth a
fair amount in the sense
that the Chinese government
does not want to be called out
for providing that level of support
going forward.
And of course, when you talk
about the defense sector,
Chinese owned
core state
owned corporations
and state linked corporations
are the most important in the space.
So the government does
have a lot more control and ownership
than the US government
does or any sort of free
market democracy.
Also, keep in mind
that this is not just about believing
the Chinese.
It's about verification and deterrence.
The United States found out
that there were Chinese
government activities
to provide support militarily.
There was never executed on,
but there was such engagement.
The Americans
not only called the Chinese out
on that back in February,
but they also made it public,
as did the UK, as did Naito.
That embarrassed the Chinese,
but it also made it very clear
that there would be direct secondary U.S.
sanctions against Chinese companies.
If that were to pass,
that would be a radically worse
US-China relationship
than we presently have.
China is having a hard time
with a strong growth this year,
and they're thinking about stimulus
on the back of their
end of zero COVID policy.
They don't need that kind
of an economic fight with the Americans.
So this is less about trust.
This is more about capabilities.