US has 'no illusions' over China, Blinken says after intensive talks

China and the United States agree on the need to "stabilize" their troubled relations, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday at the end of two days of intensive talks in Beijing.
Blinken said that "direct engagement and sustained communication at senior levels is the best way to responsibly manage our differences and ensure that competition does not veer into conflict."
But he said China had continued to refuse to set up channels for crisis communication and military contacts, something he had urged several times.
"And at this moment, China has not agreed to move forward with that," Blinken said.
"We have no illusions about the challenges of managing this relationship. There are many issues on which we profoundly, even vehemently disagree," Blinken told a press conference as his talks in Beijing came to a close.
At short notice, Blinken held a meeting with President Xi Jinping on Monday, seen as a sign that Beijing aims to cool the soaring tensions between the rival powers.
Xi said before he sat down with Blinken that the two sides had "made progress and reached agreement on some specific issues."
"State-to-state interaction should always be based on mutual respect and sincerity," Xi said, adding that he hoped Blinken's visit would help "stabilize China-US relations."
Blinken followed by saying: "President Biden asked me to travel to Beijing because he believes that the United States and China have an obligation and responsibility to manage our relationship."
"The United States is committed to doing that. It's in the interest of the United States, in the interests of China, and in the interest of the world," he said according to a State Department readout.
The first visit by a US secretary of state to China since 2018 was marked by two days of direct top-level diplomacy.
Blinken also met China's top foreign policy official Wang Yi on Monday, who ranks above Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing's power hierarchy.
According to state media, Wang said that Blinken's visit came at a "critical juncture in Sino-US relations," which were in a "downward spiral."
Wang asked the US side to stop hyping up the "China threat theory," CCTV reported him as saying.
On Sunday, Blinken spoke with Qin for seven and a half hours - much longer than planned.
During their meeting, Blinken reiterated that the United States pursues a "vision for a world that is free, open and upholds the international rules-based order."
The US secretary of state also invited Qin to Washington.
During his first visit to China as the US top diplomat, Blinken has addressed a number of contentious issues, but also areas in which Beijing and Washington could cooperate, the US State Department said.
US-China ties have been severely strained by a raft of issues, including China's backing of Russia's war in Ukraine, threats from Beijing against Taiwan and ongoing trade disputes in areas like advanced computer chips.