Blinken Meets with Liu Jianchao, 'Chinese Foreign Minister Candidate,' Just Before Taiwan Election

U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken met in Washington with a senior Chinese Communist Party official rumored to be a candidate for the next Chinese Foreign Minister, just before the Taiwan presidential election (local time on the 13th), which is expected to impact the East Asian situation.

Tony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State, is delivering opening remarks at the joint press conference of the South Korea-U.S. Foreign Ministers held at the annex of the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, last November. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

On the 12th (U.S. time), Secretary Blinken met in Washington D.C. with Liu Jianchao, Director of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party (Zhonglianbu), who is leading a semi-official delegation visiting the United States.

The meeting was attended by key figures involved in bilateral relations, including Daniel Kritenbrink, U.S. Department of State Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Xie Feng, Chinese Ambassador to the U.S.

The official Chinese counterpart to the U.S. Secretary of State is the Foreign Minister (currently Wang Yi, who concurrently serves as a member of the Chinese Communist Party Central Political Bureau), but Secretary Blinken held the meeting with Director Liu in a format equivalent to a foreign ministerial meeting, as Liu is a potential future counterpart.

Since the high-level exchanges between the U.S. and China have continued following the summit between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping in November last year, aiming to stabilize relations, the two likely focused their discussion on bilateral relations "after the Taiwan presidential election."

To avoid a situation where China escalates military demonstrations around the Taiwan Strait and tensions rise depending on the election outcome, it is presumed that both sides confirmed their basic positions on the Taiwan issue and requested the other not to take any "status quo-altering" actions.

The State Department stated after the meeting that both sides had "constructive discussions" on various bilateral, regional, and global issues, including areas of cooperation and disagreement.

Secretary Blinken emphasized the importance of resolving issues concerning Americans unjustly detained or barred from leaving China and raised concerns about human rights violations in China. He also reiterated the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

Both sides exchanged views on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, North Korea, and Middle East issues. Secretary Blinken stated that maintaining navigation rights and freedoms in the Red Sea and avoiding escalation are important.

Both sides reaffirmed the importance of keeping communication channels open between the two countries and continuing to implement agreements reached by the U.S.-China leaders during their November summit last year, including cooperation on drug control and military-to-military dialogue.

On the 12th, Secretary Blinken also held talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Kamikawa Yoko. Kyodo News reported that the two ministers agreed to closely cooperate on issues related to China and shared the view on the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. In his opening remarks made public before the meeting, Secretary Blinken said, "The U.S.-Japan alliance is the cornerstone of peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region," and expressed his anticipation for discussions on alliance issues as well as regional and global matters.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.