TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Blinken discussed US-China relationship in call with FM Qin
Blinken said he discussed the US-China relationship and maintaining open lines of communication in his phone call with Qin.
Change Size
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken smiles during a joint news conference with Senegalese Foreign Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dakar on November 20, 2021, as part of Blinken's five day trip to Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal. (AFP/Andrew Harnik)
U
S Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with incoming Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang over the phone on Sunday, Blinken said on Twitter, after China last week appointed its ambassador to the United States to be its new foreign minister.
Blinken said he discussed the US-China relationship and maintaining open lines of communication in his phone call with Qin.
China on Friday appointed Qin, its ambassador to the United States and a trusted aide of President Xi Jinping, to be its new foreign minister, as Beijing and Washington seek to stabilize rocky relations.
Qin, 56, replaces Wang Yi, who had been foreign minister for the past decade. Wang, 69, was promoted to the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party in October and is expected to play a bigger role in Chinese foreign policy.
Though Qin sounded optimistic about US-China relations during his relatively brief, 17-month stint as ambassador in Washington - his predecessor had held the post for eight years - his tenure nonetheless coincided with deteriorating ties between the two superpowers.
Wang's stint as foreign minister saw a sharp rise in tensions between Beijing and Washington on a wide range of issues ranging from trade to Taiwan.
Qin, a fluent English speaker, also stepped up visibility in Washington through public and media appearances in which he explained the Chinese position. He previously served as a spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry.
Blinken, who plans a visit in early 2023 to Beijing as tensions ease, "expects to continue a productive working relationship with Foreign Minister Qin in his new role," a State Department spokesperson said.
"The United States will continue to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage the US-PRC relationship," the spokesperson said, referring to the People's Republic of China.
Originally from the northeastern city of Tianjin, Qin frequently rubbed shoulders with President Xi Jinping before 2018 in his duties as chief of the foreign ministry's protocol department.
Qin has previously laid out a vision of China as a country that has little to learn from the West and has invoked its history as a victim during the Opium Wars of the 19th century.
