US Secretary of State Anthony blinkin is
in Beijing for talks with Chinese
leaders in an attempt to ease strained
relations between the two countries
ahead of a meeting with President Xi
Jinping he said he sat down with foreign
minister Wang Yi tensions between the
United States and China are high over a
range of issues among them the war in
Ukraine well following that meeting with
the Chinese foreign minister Anthony
blinkin underlined the need to
strengthen ties between the two
countries uh but in Beijing uh the
president asked me to travel back to
work on moving forward on the agreements
that our two presidents reached in San
Francisco at the end of last year uh
resuming cooperation on uh
counternarcotics uh restarting our
military to military uh
conversations uh looking together at the
future of artificial intelligence its
risks uh safety issues trying to
strengthen our people to- people
connections but also critically managing
responsibly our
differences for his part foreign
minister Wang Yi warned blinkin that the
US China relationship could further
deteriorate here's what he had to
say the China us relationship is facing
more negative factors and all kinds of
disruptions China's legitimate
development rights have been
unreasonably suppressed and our core
interests are facing challenges should
China and the us stay on the right path
of moving forward with stability or
return to a downward spiral this is a
major question facing our two countries
and tests our sincerity and
ability earlier I spoke about this with
DW's James chater in taiwan's capital
taipe and journalist Fabian kretchma
who's been following blink's visit for
us in Beijing Fabian we just heard
China's foreign minister there saying
it's a choice between stability or a
downward spiral in relations with the US
what is it that these two great powers
are having such difficulty agreeing
on yeah I can't overstate how fragile
actually the tensions and um also how
fragile the relationship between China
in the US is just a little over one year
blinkin was basically already on his way
to Beijing and then the uh diplomatic
issue over a suspected spy balloon from
China popped up and he canceled his
visit last minute now in the last year
progress was made the two presidents
cing ping and um Joe Biden met in San
Francisco but recently in the very few
weeks um the uh trend is negative again
and I think it will not change because
blink and the list that he brings to the
agenda here in Beijing is really quite
difficult so there's um economic
tension overc capacities and basically
destroying
uh you know dumping prices Etc while on
the other hand actually China says that
um the US suppresses our legit
legitimate right for development by
implementing tax sanctions and Export
controls so that is really difficult and
then you have a lot of foreign policy
issues maybe the most prominent the war
in Ukraine uh the US says China is
exporting a lot of um dual use products
to Russia it also um exports a lot of
machine import U machine um uh Goods to
Russia those goods they are really
important for to keep its War Machinery
going so that is also very crucial and I
don't think there's much progress for
improvement because Putin basically has
just announced that he will go soon to
visit Beijing in May and I'm sure that
the Chinese side will roll out the red
carpet for him so multiple contentious
issues there Fabian the elephant in the
room though is really Taiwan isn't it uh
there's been at least some movement at
the Diplomatic level uh has that helped
at all on this sensitive
topic well I mean Taiwan is what China
calls the core of its core interests and
a red line so this is really of crucial
um yeah interest of of China and I think
the two stances the two positions um are
really fundamentally different I think
there's really not much common ground
that can be found here for example Joe
Biden he's a president who is quite
outspoken um to express his commitment
to uh yeah protect Taiwan from a
possible Chinese Invasion and um for
from the eyes of China this is really
very inacceptable the arm sales from us
to Taiwan is inacceptable and there's so
much uh room for conflict but really not
much room for progress I think the best
what we can hope for is that both sides
will you know um subdue their rhetoric
and uh tone it down a bit so massive
tensions there surrounding Taiwan James
you are there what are people in Taiwan
saying about blinkin
well in taipe there's a belief that any
type of communication between the US and
China is better than none at all
remember the militaries of the US and
China are sometimes operating in very
close proximity uh in waters around
Taiwan and so that type of communication
in any form is viewed in a positive
light but there's an acute awareness as
Fabian mentioned when China talks about
these core interests that the US is
challenging that taian is absolutely
front and center of those concerns and
remember we're moving into this more
volatile political period here in Taiwan
where we're just weeks away from
inaugurating a new president linger this
is a man who belongs to the Taiwanese
political party that Beijing refuses to
communicate with uh and Views as
separatists and so I think there was
some hope that blinkin might be able to
uh put a word in as it were with Beijing
any type of intimidation ahead of that
May 20th inauguration but there's really
a recognition that when it comes to the
issue of Taiwan even if there is some
progress on other fronts in the US and
China relationship that this fundamental
tension remains and given that political
context in the coming months uh those
tensions look unlikely to
Abate now the US has just passed a
foreign aid package part of it provides
8 billion US dollar in funding for the
indopacific region including military
assistance to Taiwan in taiwan's view is
that enough
James well Taiwan has already thanked
the US for the support taiwan's foreign
Ministry said that it would be very
helpful for taiwan's situation but I
don't think there are any
misunderstandings in taipe about the the
scale of the military discrepancy and
Military capability between taipe and
Beijing now remember Beijing has is
running a military defense budget some
12 times at of Taiwan and so there's a
really uh deep recognition here in iwan
that if it's going to be able to to fend
off a potential Chinese attack it's
going to require not only a more modern
and more well equipped Taiwanese
military but also the support of
Washington and I would add to that too
that uh if if taiwan's going to be able
to fend off that attack it would also
require the support of the US's other
allies in the Indo Pacific and at least
a coordination between those partners
and that's why we've seen Washington
really make big efforts to bring its
allies especially
uh the Japan and the Philippines with
which it has a mutual defense treaty uh
closer together um to show a more united
front against more assertive Chinese
behavior in this
region James thank you very much uh that
was James chater in Tai and Fabian ketma
in Beijing thank you very much to both
you