Steve, I if we rewind back to 24 hours ago, we were talking about this, I feel
like things are a little bit more optimistic,
a little bit more optimistic. But I'm a pessimist by nature, of
course. So I have to kind of look at the real
situation, right. I mean, I wouldn't be in the news
business for 30 plus years if I wasn't a bit of a pessimist.
But again, I'm not going to add to the rhetoric that some have leveled blame on
the media for continuing this anti China or anti U.S.
from whatever perspective, narrative, essentially, you know, these two
gentlemen meeting is a good thing, obviously.
They met for 35 minutes in the Great Hall of the People.
Xi Jinping had his moment to say his piece, as did Antony Blinken.
And does it pave the way for a possible meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe
Biden? They haven't met since November on the
sidelines at the G. 20 and Bali.
Well, yes, I mean, we are closer to a possible phone call, video call or
meeting than we were 24 hours ago. But it doesn't necessarily mean it is
going to happen. And keep in mind, you know, shortly
after Anthony Blinken plane left Beijing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
put out a statement essentially saying Xi Jinping, a meeting with Blinken was
merely a courtesy, you know, with a foreign dignitary, top diplomat from the
United States visiting Beijing. It was a courtesy for Xi Jinping to meet
him. And again, they leveled the blame on the
deteriorating U.S. China relationship on the feet of the
United States, and that there still needs to be more changes to be made.
And keep in mind. No progress was reported, at least on
the most sticky issues, that being Taiwan.
We had Tim Gunn, the foreign minister, telling me Anthony Blinken on Sunday in
more than seven hours of talks, that Taiwan is the core of the core issues
that are deteriorating relations between China and the United States.
Let's get Anthony Blinken his take on those talks between Ching Gong, between
him and Wang Yi, which lasted several hours and thirty five minutes with Xi
Jinping. Progress is hard.
It takes time and it's not the product of one visit.
One trip, one conversation, my hope and expectation is we will have
better communications, better engagement going forward.
That's certainly not going to solve every problem between us.
Far from it, but it is critical to doing what we both agree is necessary, and
that is responsibly managing the relationship.
It's in the interest of the United States to do that.
It's in the interest of China to do that.
It's in the interest of the world now.
Blinken says he did raise concerns about China's quote unquote, provocative
actions in the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea.
But again, as you can see, the Chinese side dug in their heels on the issue of
Taiwan. No change from Beijing's perspective.
Their. Yeah, so that's that's the pessimist in
you, Steve, might be the same thing, might be different.
You're also fairly pragmatic. We all know that as well.
Source that's concerned. Where to from here?
What's possible? Yeah.
Sure. I mean, there has to be some optimism
and pragmatism mixed in there. Of course, when you're assessing these
talks going forward, again, any meeting between Xi and Biden or even a phone
call would be considered extremely positive, given that they have not
talked in more than six months. The one issue that she didn't excuse me,
Anthony Blinken did bring up repeatedly with the Chinese side is the lack,
complete lack of military to military. It's called mil to mil dialogue,
exemplified more recently at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
When the US tried to make an overture to the defense minister of China with Lloyd
Austin, the US defence secretary in Singapore, but again being rebuffed
again. So there is no dialogue right now
between the two, between the Pentagon and the Chinese equivalent.
So that makes it much more difficult to limit the chance of miscalculation or
mis estimations in the Taiwan Strait. So that's why, you know, Blinken, as the
top diplomat, wants to get those those dialogue channels back open.