Antony Blinken arrives in China, first visit by US Secretary of State to China in five years

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Beijing early Sunday on a high-stakes diplomatic mission to try to cool exploding U.S.-China tensions that have set many around the world on edge.

He is the highest-level American official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office and the first secretary of state to make the trip in five years.

The trip comes after he postponed plans to visit in February after the shootdown of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the U.S.

Yet prospects for any significant breakthrough on the most vexing issues facing the planet's two largest economies are slim, as already ties have grown increasingly fraught in recent years. Animosity and recriminations have steadily escalated over a series of disagreements that have implications for global security and stability.

Blinken plans to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Sunday, top diplomat Wang Yi, and possibly President Xi Jinping on Monday, according to U.S. officials.

Biden and Xi agreed to Blinken's trip early at a meeting last year in Bali. It came within a day of happening in February but was delayed by the diplomatic and political tumult brought on by the discovery of what the U.S. says was a Chinese spy balloon flying across the United States that was shot down.

The list of disagreements and potential conflict points is long: ranging from trade with Taiwan, human rights conditions in China to Hong Kong, as well as the Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea to Russia's war in Ukraine.

U.S. officials said before Blinken's departure from Washington on Friday that he would raise each of them, though neither side has shown any inclination to back down on their positions.

Shortly before leaving, Blinken emphasised the importance of the U.S. and China establishing and maintaining better lines of communication. The U.S. wants to make sure “that the competition we have with China doesn't veer into conflict” due to avoidable misunderstandings, he told reporters.