Beijing is sending signals of affront and détente at the same time. While China disinvited German Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the FDP, which is close to Taiwan, shortly before his planned visit to Beijing, Foreign Minister Qin Gang received the American ambassador on Monday. Qin revealed a slight thaw to Nicholas Burns, which should probably also arrive in Berlin. China's foreign minister is expected in Germany on Tuesday.

Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America, based in Washington.

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Jochen Stahnke

Political correspondent for China, Taiwan and North Korea, based in Beijing.

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Qin told the American ambassador that it was "imperative to stabilize Sino-American relations, avoid a downward spiral and prevent accidents between China and the United States." This is also of great importance to the world, said Qin, who received Burns for the first time in his new role as foreign minister.

Burns had already taken up his ambassadorial post in April last year. However, he was only able to hand over his credentials to state and party leader Xi Jinping two weeks ago. The conversation between Qin and Burns in Beijing was now one of the highest-ranking talks between representatives of both states since the balloon affair at the beginning of the year.

Qin called for relations with the US to be put back on "the right track." For this, however, he set conditions that are not very different from China's old positions. In particular, Washington must "stop undermining the one-China principle," Qin said. By this "principle" China means that Taiwan is part of China and the only legitimate Chinese state is the People's Republic. Qin told Burns that this was "China's basic principle" that should be respected.

China angered by Taiwanese president's trip

The Chinese blamed the United States alone for the situation. You can't demand better channels of communication like Washington on the one hand, and "suppress and contain" China on the other, Qin said. American "erroneous" actions and words have undone the "painstakingly achieved positive moment" after last year's meeting between Xi and President Joe Biden in Indonesia. Now the U.S. should "think deeply" and "hit China halfway" to improve relations. The latter was also expressed by Ambassador Burns last week: Washington is ready to talk, but hopes that China will meet halfway.

After the shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina in early February, the already tense US-Chinese relations had reached a new low. The balloon had previously crossed the U.S. mainland from Alaska and Canada and was reportedly able to send real-time images of sensitive military installations to China. Beijing denied this, claiming that the flying object had served scientific purposes and had gone off course.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken had canceled a planned trip to Beijing because of the incident. Washington's efforts to make up for it in the spring, also to underline the importance of communication channels in times of crisis, failed due to Chinese resistance. Most recently, the reception of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen by Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the House of Representatives, in early April near Los Angeles is said to have been the reason for Beijing to ignore Blinken's travel wishes. In addition, American intelligence findings that Beijing was considering arms deliveries to Moscow had further strained relations. President Biden threatened sanctions in the eventuality.

Nicholas Burns said on Twitter that the conversation with Qin was about the "challenges" in bilateral relations and the need for high-level communication channels. China had recently made it clear with a trip by Xi to Moscow and a mediation action between Saudi Arabia and Iran that it is seeking to challenge the dominance of the United States in international politics. Jake Sullivan, the National Security Adviser, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, on the other hand, had recently emphasized in keynote speeches that they rely on "de-risking" but not on "decoupling" in competition with China.