Professor Ling-chi Wang of UC Berkeley: Chilly reception for Blinken upon his arrival in Beijing in the morning of June 18, 2023

I was up last night to watch Blinken’s arrival in Beijing.

As expected, Tony Blinken received a chilly reception upon his arrival at Beijing Airport in the morning of June 18, 2023. No red carpet and no high-level Chinese diplomats to greet him. U.S. Ambassador Burns and a 4th-ranking Chinese diplomat from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs met him at the airport. After he settled in at the Diaoyutai Foreign Guest House compound,, he met Qin Gang, China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Chinese ambassador to Washington, DC, at a conference facility, most likely in Diaoyutai compound. The two met at the front door. It was courteous and cold. Qin looked relaxed and occasionally smiled. Blinken, on the other hand, was stone-face, nervous, and uncomfortable. As the two walked into the front door of the facility, Qin asked him how his flight was. Blinken tersely answered,”Fine!” Without further conversation, they walked into the conference room. They first stood in front of the two flags for a photo. During the photo session, Qin stretched his hand over to Blinken. Blinken was either unaware of Qin’s outstretched hand for a handshake or hesitated for a moment before he stretched his hand for a historic photo. I did not hear or see any conversation between them. As soon as the picture-taking was over, they headed for the respective side of a long table for their first meeting, flanked by their staffs. No smiles and no casual conversation.

That was the beginning of the first meeting between the two sides. The TV camera blaced kout as soon as they sat down. We don’t know what happened after they sat down.

Judging from their first encounter at the airport and at the brief encounter at the conference site, I doubt anything significant will take place at their meeting. Blinken is scheduled to have a meeting next with Wang Yi, China’s senior diplomat. That is all the public know. Blinken will leave Beijing the next day.

I doubt anything significant will come out of Blinken’s “One Night Stand” in Beijing. The meeting allowed Biden to claim that he reached out to and engaged China without capitulating to China’s demands. This gesture was clearly a political performance for the sole benefit of his reelection campaign next year and to remind the Republicans and American people that he is working hard and standing firm against assertive China. China agreed to the Beijing meeting to show the world that the U.S. is duplicitous and is clearly the villain and the aggressor and China is an advocate of peace and peaceful development around the world. Biden has been busy putting heavy pressure on old and skeptical allies to gang up on China with the U.S. and gaining ground in Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. On the other hand, China has been winning friends in the Third World, winning friends and making deals in Latin American, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, parts of Europe.

Let us wait and see what happens next in the unfolding political and diplomatic theater.

I could not resist staying up to watch the Blinken arrival on TV and the chilly reception he justly deserved. It could have been worse, if Beijing had decided to give the same reception the US extended to Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi in the historic encounter in Anchorage, Alaska in 2021. In response to that discourteous recetion, Yang gave a command performance of his life as a diplomat for which he got a “standing ovation”at home and set the tit-for-tet and lex talion style for China’s dealings with the US. I look forward to see and hear what has bee happening in Diaoyutai.