Vantage | What to make of this unusually 'warm' week in US-China ties

The China-US relationship is chaotic; it tends to blow hot and cold. Last night, there was almost a warm, fluffy glow surrounding the ties. Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a letter with some hopeful words. He said China was willing to cooperate with the US. Both sides had to manage their differences and work together to respond to global challenges. Xi said he wants stable Sino-US ties built on “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation”. All very poetic. Xi’s letter wasn’t completely optimistic, of course. But he did mention a “right” way to get along and how it was crucial for the world. Overall, the letter ignited hopes of a potential meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden.

We’ll get to the meeting in a moment. Before that, we should clarify that Xi’s letter wasn’t addressed to Biden, it was sent to an American non-profit organisation dedicated to sino-US relations. For years, the organisation was led by Henry Kissinger. The former secretary of state who actually forged America’s relations with China. Kissinger has usually been lauded by China. So maybe Biden and his team shouldn’t give Xi’s letter too much importance. But nonetheless, it does signal a thaw in the frosty ties. That’s something both Washington and Beijing have been working towards. Every month you see a high-level bilateral meeting, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to Beijing in June. Treasury secretary Janet Yellen went in July, China’s top diplomat, foreign minister, Wang Yi, has been meeting American officials continuously. And he’ll meet them again on Thursday in Washington. “During his visit to the United States, foreign minister Wang Yi will have in-depth exchanges of views with the US top officials on China-US relations and international and regional issues of common concern, as well as friendly exchanges with people from all walks of life in the US, in order to make clear China’s principled position and legitimate concerns on China-US relations. We hope that the US side will work with the Chinese side,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning. The hopes are that Wang Yi’s visit will pave the way for the big event: A meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in the US next month. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit is taking place in San Francisco in about three weeks. Both Washington and Beijing seem to want Xi to attend it and meet Biden on the sidelines. But while it seems their goals are aligned, the antics and posturing by both sides may still play spoiler. The US has imposed new chip export controls on China. It has also released a report on China’s military activity, which Beijing didn’t take kindly to at all. “First of all, this US report is the same as such reports it released earlier, which ignores facts, is full of bias, and spreads the China threat theory in order to make excuses for maintaining its own military hegemony,” said Mao Ning, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson. That scathing attack was from a few days ago. It just shows how tenuous the situation is. And how there’s no guarantee that the Biden-Xi meet will take place. But even if it does, will anything meaningful come out of it?  Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s views._ Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.