China’s President Xi Jinping and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meet in Beijing in bid to ease tensions
China’s President Xi Jinping has met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing – as the world’s two biggest economies look to cool rising tensions.
Speaking after the 30-minute meeting on Monday, Mr Xi said he hoped that Mr Blinken would make “more positive contributions” to “stabilising” ties between Washington and Beijing, state media reported.
Mr Xi also said the two countries had made “progress and reached agreement” on “some specific issues”.
The Chinese leader spoke to Mr Blinken while sat at the head of a long conference table in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
Mr Blinken, meanwhile, said the two countries agreed the need to stabilise their relationship and that the US would work with China of areas of mutual interest – such as food safety.
He also reiterated Washington’s long-standing “One China” policy – in which the US maintains official relations with Beijing and “robustly informal” ones with Taiwan.
However, Mr Blinken said that he raised Washington’s “concerns” with Mr Xi about China’s “proactive” actions in the Taiwan strait.
It comes after Mr Blinken – who is in China for his second day of meetings – met China’s top diplomat earlier on Monday and foreign minister Qin Gang on Sunday.
He is the first US secretary of state to visit China in five years, and also the highest-level US official to visit China since Joe Biden took office in January 2021.
The visit had been postponed from earlier in the year following the spy balloon saga, when a suspected Chinese surveillance device flew over US airspace for several days before being shot down.
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Mr Blinken’s visit is expected to usher in a new round of visits by senior US and Chinese officials – possibly including a meeting between Mr Xi and Mr Biden in the coming months.
In earlier “positive” meetings between Mr Blinken and senior Chinese officials, the two sides expressed willingness to talk.
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Explained: Blinken’s visit to Beijing
However, they showed little inclination to bend on hardened positions such as Taiwan – the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own territory.
They are also at odds over issues ranging from trade, US efforts to hold back China’s semiconductor industry, and the ruling Communist Party’s human rights track record.
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On Sunday, Mr Blinken “emphasised the importance of diplomacy and maintaining open channels of communication” during his meeting with Mr Qin, according to a statement by the US State Department.
Regular talks would “reduce the risk of misperception and miscalculation”, the department added in its statement.
China’s ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement that Mr Blinken’s visit “coincides with a critical juncture in China-US” relations.
It also blamed the US’s “erroneous perception” of China for the current “low point” in relations and called for the US to lift unilateral sanctions and the suppression of its technology.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
Read more from Sky News:
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
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