Beijing, Apr 25 (EFE).- United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that China and the US had to find ways to make bilateral relations as stable as possible.
“One of the things that (US) President Biden and (Chinese) President Xi agreed when they met in San Francisco was that we have to – we need to find ways to put as much stability as possible into the relationships to make sure that we’re managing the relationship responsibly, which we’re committed to doing,” Blinken said during a meeting with business leaders in Shanghai, the US state department said in a statement.
“And a big part of that is making sure that the economic relationship is working in the ways that it should work to mutual benefit,” he added.
“It’s important that we hear what’s working, what’s not, and also to be able to reflect any concerns that you have,” the US diplomat said.
Blinken added that he was seeking to ensure that his administration is “effectively looking out for the interests of our own community, and the best way to do that is to start by actually hearing from that community.”
The diplomat also met Chen Jining, the Chinese Communist Party Secretary of Shanghai, who highlighted the importance of cooperation between both countries for the “well-being of both peoples of nations and also the future of humanity.”
“Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the relationship has not always been smooth, there has always been twists and turns, but overall, it has progressed with historical development and progressed forward,” Chen said.
For his part, Blinken praised the evolution of Shanghai as an “a hub for business, for commerce, for trade” and highlighted the importance of “direct engagement, of sustained engagement” between both nations.
Blinken also expressed the US’ willingness to address its differences with China by “looking for ways to build cooperation.”
Blinken’s visit to the Asian country, which will conclude on Friday, takes place after the US Senate approved a bill that will force the Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok within nine months if it does not want the platform be banned in the North American country.
In March, China accused the US of adopting intimidation tactics and said that they would “eventually backfire” on it.
Blinken also met students on Shanghai’s NYU campus and expressed Washington’s commitment to strengthening “people-to-people ties, including the educational exchanges” amid accusations from China that the US has harassed Chinese students and arbitrarily canceled their visas.
“We have about – almost 300,000 Chinese students in the United States, and that’s something we very much support. This last year I think we had more than 100,000 new visas students studying in the United States. Here, unfortunately, we’ve gone from about 15,000 students – Americans – here a decade or so ago to now just about 800, and in fact we hit a low of about 300 – COVID and other reasons,” he said.
“We’d like to build that back up, because, again, I think it’s so important to make these connections,” he added.
Earlier in the year, China said that some Chinese students had been harassed, interrogated, and deported from the US despite having valid visas.
Blinken described educational exchanges as “a really important way” to avoid miscommunications and misperceptions and find ways for improvement even amid “profound differences.”
“One thing I want to make sure is that, in both of our countries, we develop and we have rising generations who know each other, who know about each other, and hopefully, who understand each other,” he said.
“That’s the best way to make sure that we’re managing this relationship between our countries responsibly, effectively, and hopefully for the good of the people not only in our countries but around the world,” he concluded.
Blinken will end his visit on Friday in Beijing, where he will meet with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, to discuss the escalation of tensions in the Middle East and Russia’s war against Ukraine.
His trip comes after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart, Dong Jun, spoke for the first time since November 2022 amid rising tensions in the South China Sea, especially between China and the Philippines.
On Tuesday, the US Senate approved an $8.1 billion aid package for Taiwan amid criticism by China, which considers the island a part of its territory. EFE
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