China’s foreign minister due in US as efforts to mend ties clouded by Israeli war on Gaza

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will travel to the US this week in an effort to mend bilateral ties in a visit overshadowed by Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza.

The latest chapter in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which broke out on Oct. 7 and has resulted in over 7,900 deaths, mostly of Palestinians, is set to cloud his efforts in his meetings in Washington.

The visit will mark the first to the US by a Chinese foreign minister in years after relations between the world’s two largest economies sharply deteriorated after the Trump administration chose to hit Chinese goods with tariffs.

Since then, no significant progress had been made until this summer, when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Beijing, where he met with President Xi Jinping.

“The world needs a generally stable China-US relationship,” Xi told Blinken, who also held meetings with Chinese officials.

“Whether the two countries can find the right way to get along bears on the future and destiny of humanity,” Xi emphasized.

China’s messages have remained nearly identical when it comes to relations with the US.

As Wang was preparing to fly to the US, Xi told visiting California Governor Gavin Newsom that "the progress made in China-US relations is hard-won and should be cherished. The interests of the two countries are closely entwined."

Blinken was the first US secretary of state to visit Beijing since 2019. Since then, several top US officials have made trips to China.

Relations between the two countries headed south when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made an unannounced trip to Taiwan in August last year.

Beijing took several measures including firing missiles over the island nation and breaking off high-level military contacts with the Pentagon to express its anger over Washington’s courting of Taiwan, which it considers part of China and remains at the top of the agenda in bilateral relations.

“Taiwan independence means war,” the Chinese State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office declared Wednesday.

- Xi-Biden summit, bilateral, regional and international relations on agenda

As part of ongoing efforts to responsibly manage the US-China relationship, Blinken will discuss a range of bilateral, regional and global issues with Wang, according to the US State Department.

The meeting aims to maintain open channels of communication, it said in a statement.

According to Beijing, the two sides will “have in-depth exchanges of views” on shared issues.

Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry, pointed to Wang’s “friendly communication” with various quarters in the US where he will “state China’s principled position and legitimate concerns on bilateral relations.”

Beijing has also insisted in its communiques that the two sides must “follow through on the important common understandings between the two heads of state,” referring to a meeting between Xi and his US counterpart Joe Biden in Indonesia last November.

Xi and Biden had directed their teams to follow up on their Bali summit, but the discovery in February of a Chinese “surveillance” balloon over the US led to Blinken’s visit being postponed to June.

Wang’s trip to Washington also appears to be for discussing possible summit-level talks between Xi and Biden in San Francisco, which will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next month.

Neither side has spoken about whether such a meeting will be held.

In his message sent Tuesday to a gala dinner held by the National Committee on US-China Relations in New York, Xi said Beijing was "ready to work with the US to make mutual progress.”

However, Washington has said “the United States will continue to use diplomacy to advance US interests and values, address areas of difference and make progress on shared transnational challenges.”

- ‘Cease-fire, peace, bombs and bullets’

Einar Tangen, a senior fellow at the Beijing-based Taihe Institute and founder of Asia Narratives, told Anadolu that China is trying to engage with the US, “but the question is how.”

“China is sending a special envoy to broker a cease-fire. The US is sending bombs and bullets, which will be used for a genocide while pretending it can be done humanely,” Tangen said, referring to Washington’s military support to Israel in its latest war on Gaza.

China has insisted in its all communications, including by Xi, that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a sovereign state of Palestine based on the 1967 borders.

It has criticized arms supplies to Israel and repeatedly called for the creation of a humanitarian corridor to Gaza.

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip has soared to 6,546, including 2,704 children, 1,584 women, and 364 elderly people.

At least 1,400 Israelis have been killed in the conflict.

“Those treating this tragedy as a choice between Hamas and Israel are pushing a false dichotomy,” Tangen said.

“Beijing believes that the global situation demands cooperation beyond its own concerns, but with Washington in disarray and dysfunctional, the challenge is getting coordinated action,” he said.

Israel has launched relentless airstrikes on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas into Israeli territory on Oct. 7.

- Bilateral military contacts and US’s military pacts in Asia-Pacific

The sudden disappearance and subsequent removal of Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu may have invited criticism against Beijing for its opaqueness over the issue, but it may bode well for China’s relations with the US.

Beijing had refused several requests from the Pentagon for talks and meetings between the two countries’ defense chiefs.

For any high-level contact, China wanted the US to lift sanctions on Li, who was sacked on Tuesday, for alleged corruption.

With Li gone, it is highly likely that the two sides will resume high-level military communication at a time when Chinese and US military aircraft and warships have conducted parallel operations in the disputed South China Sea.

China has also remained highly critical of Washington’s expanding military pacts and has warned against extending NATO to the wider Asia-Pacific.

However, Beijing has faced criticism over its expanding economic and military sphere in the region and beyond.

Its multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative has remained in focus in Western discussions.