US, China Truce?
“The two sides expressed a willingness to keep talking, but there was little indication that either is prepared to bend from its positions on issues ranging from trade, to Taiwan, to human rights conditions in China and Hong Kong, to Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea, to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
At the meeting with Blinken, Xi pronounced himself pleased with the outcome of Blinken’s earlier meetings with two top Chinese diplomats, and said the two countries had agreed to resume a program of understandings that he and President Joe Biden agreed to at a meeting in Bali last year.
“The Chinese side has made our position clear, and the two sides have agreed to follow through the common understandings President Biden and I had reached in Bali,” Xi said.
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The two big super powers in the room are trying to head off a prolonged period of tension that could derail the long term goals of each nation. The high level visit from Sec. Blinken aims to bring relations between the 2 nations back down to a civil speaking level and further meaningful engagement that the World desperately needs at this time. Both nations are fearful of a more serious conflict that could arise by a continued lack of dialogue feeding deep suspicions and that may lead to brinkmanship. Both nations are breathing a little sigh of relief.
