“Diplomatic Drive-By?” Blinken Gets Short Meeting With Xi As U.S.-China Contacts, Conflicts Continue

“Diplomatic Drive-By?” Blinken Gets Short Meeting With Xi As U.S.-China Contacts, Conflicts Continue

Share to Linkedin U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of ... [+] the People in Beijing, China, Monday, June 19, 2023. (Leah Millis/Pool Photo via AP) U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing on Monday was able to get a much sought-after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed at lowering a wide range of tensions between two of the world's most powerful nations. The short length of the visit, however, suggested that the substance was largely perfunctory. "Diplomatic drive-by?" asked long-time Morgan Stanley Asia executive and current Yale Law School's Paul Tsai Center China Center fellow Stephen Roach in a Tweet. "Blinken-Xi met for only 35 minutes— one of the shortest high-level meetings on record. Consecutive translation cuts the actual exchange in half — leaving each less than 10 minutes of perfunctory speaking time," Roach wrote. Nonetheless, the meeting marked the highest level exchanges between the two governments since a pause earlier this year after the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the U. S. heartland in February created an uproar in Congress and set back momentum created by a meeting between President Biden