State Department refuses to officially announce Blinken’s visit to China
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The State Department is not yet ready to announce Blinken’s visit to China, RIA Novosti reports, citing a representative of the US Foreign Ministry.
He commented on the publication in the media, which wrote about the possibility of a visit. The trip, if it takes place, will be the highest level visit in bilateral relations since 2018, when then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was hosted in Beijing.
Earlier, the Financial Times reported that Beijing does not want to coordinate the visit of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, as it fears that the American side will publish the results of the investigation into the downed balloon. As noted, after the incident with a downed Chinese balloon over the United States, Blinken canceled an already agreed visit to China, and now Beijing is not ready to accept it. At the same time, there is no understanding of what the American side intends to do with the incident report.
The FT writes that Beijing is concerned that the US will release the report during Blinken’s visit. Earlier, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang already informed the American side on this issue.
The publication points out that some officials in the US do want declassified evidence for public release to show that the balloon was in fact conducting surveillance, and Congress is likely to also push for the FBI’s findings to be released. Another reason for China’s reluctance to coordinate Blinken’s visit is the recent contacts of the Americans with the Taiwan authorities, the material says.
Blinken himself said that he still intends to go on a visit to Beijing when “conditions are ripe” for this.
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