Blinken arrives in Beijing for high stakes visit

Beijing, June 18 US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday arrived in Beijing for two days of meetings with Chinese officials, media reports said.
The trip marks the first visit by an American diplomat to China in almost five years, BBC news reported.
US officials say the main goal of the talks is to stabilise a relationship that has become extremely tense.
It comes nearly five months after an earlier Blinken visit was postponed, following the flight of a suspected Chinese spy balloon in US airspace, according to BBC.
The US has been lowering expectations for the visit and both sides have made clear they do not expect any major breakthrough.
The goal, US officials say, is to reopen lines of high-level communication and stabilise relations that have become strained since the balloon incident.
China has staged military exercises near Taiwan, which Beijing views as an integral part of China. The US maintains close ties with Taiwan’s democratically elected government.
Blinken is the highest-ranking US government official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.