Xi says China, US 'made progress' in Blinken visit

BEIJING - President Xi Jinping said the United States and China had "made progress" on a number of issues Monday as he hosted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for talks in Beijing.

Blinken's visit is the highest-level trip by a US official to China in nearly five years with ties severely strained between the world's two largest economies.

Xi, China's most powerful leader in decades, met Blinken at the capital's Great Hall of the People just after 4:30 pm (0830 GMT), Chinese state media and US officials said.

"The Chinese side has made our position clear and the two sides have agreed to follow through the common understandings President Biden and I had reached in Bali," Xi told the top US diplomat.

"Two sides have also made progress and reached agreement on some specific issues", he added, without elaborating. 

"I hope that Secretary Blinken, through this visit, can make positive contributions to stabilising China-US relations," he added.

The meeting, which lasted just over half an hour, came after Blinken held more than 10 hours of talks over two days with other top officials.

At the ornate Diaoyutai State Guesthouse earlier Monday, Blinken and China's foreign policy supremo Wang Yi offered polite smiles before talks with their aides, who unlike their bosses wore masks in line with lingering Covid-19 protocols.

Away from the cameras, Wang told Blinken that his trip "comes at a critical juncture in China-US relations", according to state broadcaster CCTV.

"It is necessary to make a choice between dialogue and confrontation, cooperation or conflict," he said.

"We must reverse the downward spiral of China-US relations, push for a return to a healthy and stable track, and work together to find a correct way for China and the United States to get along," Wang added.

He also issued a warning on Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy claimed by Beijing.

In the past year, China has launched live-fire military drills twice near the island in anger over meetings between top US lawmakers and Taiwanese leaders.

"On this issue, China has no room to compromise or concede," Wang told Blinken, according to CCTV. 

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller called the discussion with Wang "candid and productive".

Blinken "underscored the importance of responsibly managing the competition between the United States and the PRC through open channels of communication to ensure competition does not veer into conflict", Miller said, referring to the People's Republic of China.

US officials have voiced fears that China in the coming years will try to seize Taiwan and insist that Washington's sales of weapons to the island are meant only to preserve the status quo.

Blinken will address reporters before leaving China later Monday.