**Blinken arrived in Beijing, direct contact main target.** U.S. Secretary of State Blinken has arrived in China. He will stay in Beijing for two days, meeting at least his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang and possibly President Xi Jinping. Blinken awaits a difficult visit. The relationship between China and the United States is under great strain because of such things as the tensions surrounding Taiwan, the ongoing trade war, differing views on the war in Ukraine and the deployment of a Chinese balloon over U.S. territory earlier this year. According to the U.S., that was a spy balloon. It is the first visit by a U.S. Secretary of State to China since 2018. Before leaving, Blinken said direct communication is one of his goals from the trip. "If we want to make sure that the competition we have with China does not turn into a conflict, you have to start communicating," he said. **Watching everywhere.** Blinken's visit to China is also being closely watched in the financial markets. The United States and China are the world's largest economies. Any rapprochement or, on the contrary, new tensions could have major consequences there as well. Blinken was actually supposed to travel to Beijing back in February, but did not go after the "balloon riot. Today's visit is seen by experts as a kind of reconnaissance, which should lower the threshold for future visits back and forth. https://nos.nl/artikel/2479331-blinken-aangekomen-in-peking-direct-contact-voornaamste-doel Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)