China Urges Common Ground Ahead of Visit by Top US Diplomat

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(Bloomberg) -- China and the US must find common ground for the sake of the global economic recovery, the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper said, signaling Beijing’s continued desire to mend ties ahead of an expected visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

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The US hasn’t “let go of its obsession with treating China as a so-called strategic competitor,” the People’s Daily said in a commentary Wednesday. “What the US side should understand is that there is competition in the world at any time, but competition should be to learn from each other, catch up with each other, and make progress together, not ‘If you lose and I win; You die and I live,’ and blind anti-China approaches will not work,” the paper said.

Blinken would be the first US secretary of state to visit China since Michael Pompeo’s frosty trip in October 2018 amid then-President Donald Trump’s trade war. That trip included Pompeo and then-Foreign Minister Wang Yi airing their disagreements and Chinese President Xi Jinping declining to meet with the visiting American diplomat — a sign of tensions to come.

While neither side has publicly disclosed Blinken’s itinerary, a commentary in the China Daily newspaper said he would visit Sunday and Monday. The visit has been in the works since US President Joe Biden met Xi at Group of 20 summit in Bali in November, a discussion that has led to some slight improvement in ties.

The People’s Daily commentary also said that Washington should respect China’s sovereignty by not crossing its bottom line with support for Taiwan independence.

--With assistance from Jing Li.

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