Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, is making his inaugural visit to China, approximately five months following a significant fallout over a Chinese surveillance balloon.
The initial journey was unexpectedly aborted when the balloon, claimed by China to be a weather monitor, crossed the US mainland and was eventually destroyed by American defense forces.
Blinken is scheduled to engage with China's premier foreign policy representatives, but there's no confirmation yet on a potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who recently made a public appearance with Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, in Beijing.
Both superpowers are dealing with a series of pressing matters, encompassing notable disputes and potential areas of collaboration.
Here are three critical topics likely to dominate the discussions.
Reviving Diplomatic Ties
Above all, Blinken's trip aims to restore any form of diplomatic engagement.
There was a preliminary thaw last month when senior US officials met in Vienna, Austria.
However, Blinken is the highest-ranking official from the Biden administration to visit China, marking the first such trip by a US Secretary of State to Beijing since October 2018.
Now is an ideal time to revive dialogue as it inherently mitigates conflict risks, suggested Kurt Campbell, Deputy Assistant to the President and Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs, in a pre-visit briefing.
The US doesn't anticipate any notable outcomes from this visit. The mere occurrence of these meetings could be considered a diplomatic achievement.
If this visit fosters further engagement between US and Chinese officials, it would provide a solid foundation for future interactions.
Resolving Trade Disputes
Biden's relationship with China has been challenging, partly due to his reluctance to revoke trade actions introduced by his predecessor, Donald Trump, including substantial import tariffs on Chinese products.
In certain domains, Biden has intensified restrictions, notably on US computer-chip exports to China, to preserve the US's leading position in cutting-edge electronics technologies.
China retaliated by imposing its own ban on computer memory chips from Micron, the largest US manufacturer.
While acknowledging China's concerns, Campbell stated that the US would defend and justify its actions and potential future strategies.
Although computer technology might be a hotbed of competition, the illicit drug trade could offer opportunities for collaboration.
The US seeks to restrict the export of Chinese chemical components used to produce fentanyl, a synthetic opioid significantly more potent than heroin, which has contributed to a tripling in US drug overdose fatalities over the past seven years.
Avoiding Armed Conflict
Following the balloon episode, there were indications that China planned to send arms to Russia, potentially fueling the war against Ukraine.
Recently, however, US officials have retracted these allegations, eliminating a potentially explosive issue that risked transforming the Ukraine-Russia conflict into a proxy war between the US and China.
Blinken and his team have expressed that their mission is to defuse tensions, with renewed dialogue as the first step.
Achieving more might be challenging at this stage - and expanding cooperation could become increasingly difficult as anti-China rhetoric in Washington is expected to intensify ahead of the 2024 presidential elections.
A mutually satisfactory result from this trip might simply be the reestablishment of communication lines to avert an incident leading to military confrontation.