China and US should be ‘partners, not rivals’, Xi tells Blinken

China says it prefers to bolster its ties with the United States, but considerable challenges remain.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has capped a visit to Beijing by meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping as the two countries try to stabilise relations amid disputes over national security, the economy, and geopolitical differences on the Middle East, Ukraine and Southeast Asia.

Xi told the top US diplomat on Friday that the two superpowers “should be partners rather than rivals” and should help each other succeed rather than hurt each other, according to the state news agency Xinhua.

“I proposed mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation to be the three overarching principles. They are both lessons learned from the past and a guide for the future,” he said.

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”.

But as both Xi and Blinken said, there are still major issues that threaten the recent improvement in relations.