As Xi Jinping tells Antony Blinken, “China Is Willing To Cooperate, But…”

Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping informed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at their meeting in Beijing on Friday that although China is eager to work with the US, such cooperation should be a “two-way street.”.
Declaring that Beijing and Washington should be partners rather than adversaries, President Xi reaffirmed that Beijing and Washington should cooperate due to the diversity and complexity of the world’s concerns.

“China is open to working with us, but collaboration has to be two-way. China is not averse to competition; nonetheless, rivalry needs to focus on joint advancement rather than engaging in a zero-sum game. China is steadfast in its non-alignment, and the US must not form little blocs. The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying, “Each side can have its friends and partners, but it should not target, oppose, or harm the other.”

China also said that it expects the US to see China’s growth favorably and that it will embrace a self-assured, transparent, wealthy, and flourishing US.

“Over the past 45 years, the relationship has gone through wind and rain, and the two sides can draw a few important lessons: China and the United States should be partners rather than rivals; help each other succeed rather than hurt each other; seek common ground and reserve differences rather than engage in vicious competition; and honour words with actions rather than say one thing but do another,” the statement continued.

President Xi expressed even more optimism that both nations would keep up their aggressive efforts to genuinely stabilize, enhance, and advance their bilateral ties.

According to a proverb in Chinese, “No progress means regress.” It holds true for US-China ties as well. In order to really stabilize, enhance, and advance the bilateral ties, it is anticipated that the two teams will keep up their active efforts to realize the San Francisco vision, “Xi was quoted as saying.

Blinken pointed out that the US and China have achieved excellent strides in their collaboration in areas including bilateral relations, counter-narcotics, artificial intelligence, and people-to-people exchanges since President Biden and President Xi met in San Francisco. The statement went on to say that “US and China working together” is necessary due to the complexity and variety of the problems the globe confronts.

According to the New York Times, the visit attempts to strengthen the tense relationship between the two nations despite disagreements over national security, economic, and geopolitical tensions.

In a statement, the US State Department claimed that the US and China conducted “in-depth, substantive, and constructive discussions” on a variety of regional and global concerns as well as important bilateral relationship goals.

As part of appropriately managing rivalry with the PRC (China), Secretary Blinken stressed that the US would continue to utilize diplomacy to advance in areas of disagreement and areas of cooperation that are important to the American people and the globe.

Additionally, the State Department stated that he pushed for further advancements in the implementation of the leaders’ commitments made at the Woodside Summit on a number of important issues, such as enhancing military-to-military communication to prevent miscalculation and conflict, initiating discussions on managing the risk and safety challenges posed by advanced forms of artificial intelligence, and advancing counternarcotics cooperation to disrupt the global flow of synthetic drugs, including fentanyl and their precursor chemicals, into the United States.

Blinken said earlier on April 24 that he was in China “to make progress on issues that matter most to the American people, including curbing fentanyl trafficking.” This is Blinken’s second trip to China this year.

Blinken’s trip comes after US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s earlier this month trip to China.