China issues a “downward spiral” warning as Blinken and Xi Jinping meet.

“Negative factors” were developing in the relationship between the two superpowers, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Secretary of State Antony Blinken during an earlier meeting on Friday.

Hong Kong — As Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded a three-day visit to China marked by divisive issues and warnings from his hosts of another “downward spiral” in relations, he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday.

The Great Hall of the People, a grand and opulent structure near to Tiananmen Square, is where the two men first met on Friday afternoon local time.

Blinken is making his second visit in less than a year as the two nations attempt to mend fences through fresh negotiations in spite of an expanding array of geopolitical divergences.

Blinken’s visit to China was primarily intended as a warning against China’s backing of Russia’s war on Ukraine, which started a few weeks after Beijing and Moscow announced their “no limits” partnership in 2022. Even while it doesn’t seem to be giving Russia any deadly help, Blinken stated last week that China is the “primary contributor” to Russia’s defense industrial foundation since it is giving machine tools, semiconductors, and other dual-use goods.

Other topics on the agenda included North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, the Israel-Hamas conflict, Chinese economic and trade practices that the United States considers unfair, and Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.

Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met earlier on Friday at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, a frequent meeting place for visiting dignitaries.

Before the meeting, Blinken informed Wang, “We believe that there is no substitute for face-to-face diplomacy in order to try and move forward, but also to make sure that we’re as clear as possible about the areas where we have differences, to avoid misunderstandings, to avoid miscalculations.

Before the meeting, Wang said, speaking via an interpreter, that the relationship between the United States and China “has gone through ups and downs and twists and turns.”

Although he said that “negative factors” were getting worse, the relationship was starting to stabilize.

China’s core interests are facing challenges and our legitimate development rights have been unreasonably suppressed,” Wang remarked, seemingly alluding to U.S. export limits and other policies that Beijing claims are meant to stop its economic expansion.

He questioned, “Should China and the United States continue on their current path of stability-building or take a turn for the worse? “This is a significant issue facing our two nations.”

Following their more than three-hour meeting, Blinken called it “extensive and constructive.”

A State Department readout states that the two men talked about the next steps on a number of commitments made by President Joe Biden and Chinese Premier Xi at their November summit in California. These commitments included advancing military-to-military communication, advancing cooperation on counternarcotics, having discussions about the risks and safety of artificial intelligence, and facilitating people-to-people exchanges.

That summit, the first encounter between the two leaders in a year, was intended to stabilize U.S.-China relations that had reached their lowest point in decades amid disputes over trade, technology, the status of Taiwan and the appearance of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over U.S. territory.

Even though relations have since improved, the strengthening of American security alliances in the Asia-Pacific region, American concerns about Chinese goods flooding international markets, American inquiries into China’s shipbuilding, electric vehicle, and other industries, the potential for increased American tariffs on Chinese goods, and this week’s passage of legislation that could lead to an American ban on the Chinese app TikTok are all putting the relationship to the test.

The legislation, which Biden signed into law on Wednesday as Blinken was arriving in China, also includes $8 billion for security in Taiwan, a self-ruling island democracy that Beijing claims as its territory, and the broader Indo-Pacific, where the U.S. and China are competing for influence.

When Blinken was in China last, in June, he also had a meeting with Xi. During this tour, Blinken also stopped in Shanghai, where he visited the New York University campus and had meetings with American business leaders.