China and US should be ‘partners, not rivals’, Xi tells Blinken
Al JazeeraChina says it prefers to bolster its ties with the United States, but considerable challenges remain. Xi said China would be happy to see a prosperous US and hopes Washington will share this outlook for Beijing so bilateral ties can “truly stabilise, improve and move forward”. Blinken raised the issue of Chinese “support to the Russian defence industrial base” during five and a half hours of talks, according to US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller, who added that the two sides also discussed fractious topics such as Taiwan and the South China Sea. China has not provided Russia with arms for its war in Ukraine, but the US and other Western nations say Chinese industrial exports like machinery and semiconductors have helped Russia increase its production of weapons. “I made clear that while the US will continue to de-escalate tensions, our defence commitments to the Philippines remain ironclad,” Blinken told reporters, adding that he raised Beijing’s “dangerous actions in the South China Sea” during meetings with top leaders.