Blinken set for high-stakes China visit with tensions rising and breakthrough prospects low

By MATTHEW LEE
AP Diplomatic Writer

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has embarked on a high-stakes diplomatic trip to China to try to cool exploding tensions between the powers that have set many around the world on edge. Yet prospects for any significant breakthrough on the most vexing issues facing the planet’s two largest economies are slim. Blinken arrives in Beijing on Sunday for two days of talks with senior Chinese officials after having postponed plans to visit in February after the shootdown of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the U.S. He will be 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.