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Blinken to Pay Long-Awaited China Visit on February 5-6

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks during a visit to NASA headquarters with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other US and Japanese officials (not pictured) in Washington, US, January 13, 2023. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks during a visit to NASA headquarters with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other US and Japanese officials (not pictured) in Washington, US, January 13, 2023. (Reuters)
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Blinken to Pay Long-Awaited China Visit on February 5-6

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks during a visit to NASA headquarters with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other US and Japanese officials (not pictured) in Washington, US, January 13, 2023. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks during a visit to NASA headquarters with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other US and Japanese officials (not pictured) in Washington, US, January 13, 2023. (Reuters)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Beijing on February 5-6, a US official said Tuesday, giving dates for a long-awaited trip aimed at keeping high tensions in check.  

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Blinken would arrive in the Chinese capital on February 5 and also hold talks the following day, going ahead with the visit despite mounting concern about Covid-19 cases in China.  

Blinken will be the first US secretary of state to visit China since October 2018 when his Republican predecessor Mike Pompeo, known for his outspoken criticism of Beijing, made a brief stop following talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang. 

Blinken's trip was announced in November when Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in Bali on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit, with the leaders of the world's two largest economies both voicing guarded hope at preventing disagreements from spiraling out of control. 

In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin welcomed the visit and said that he hoped Blinken would follow the path of the Xi-Biden meeting and help "push China-US relations back on the track of healthy and stable development." 

Tensions soared in August as China staged war games near Taiwan, which it claims, following a defiant visit to the self-governing democracy by Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the US House of Representatives.  

Blinken has previously warned that China may be stepping up its timeframe for considering an invasion of Taiwan.  

Meeting last week with the foreign and defense ministers of close US ally Japan, Blinken said his trip to China aimed in part at keeping open channels of communication.  

"What we don't want is for any misunderstanding to veer into conflict," Blinken said.  

Blinken said that the Biden administration was committed to establishing "guardrails" on tensions so as to "manage this relationship responsibly," including finding potential areas of cooperation such as climate change and global health. 

"We're not looking for conflict. We'll manage the competition responsibly, but we will compete vigorously," Blinken said. 

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Evacuations and Call for Aid as Typhoon Usagi Approaches Philippines

A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)
A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)
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Evacuations and Call for Aid as Typhoon Usagi Approaches Philippines

A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)
A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)

The Philippines ordered evacuations Wednesday ahead of Typhoon Usagi's arrival, as the UN's disaster office sought $32.9 million in aid for the country after recent storms killed more than 150 people.

The national weather service said Usagi -- the archipelago's fifth major storm in three weeks -- would likely make landfall Thursday in Cagayan province on the northeast tip of main island Luzon.

Provincial civil defense chief Rueli Rapsing said mayors had been ordered to evacuate residents in vulnerable areas, by force if necessary, as the 120 kilometers (75 miles) an hour typhoon bears down on the country.

"Under (emergency protocols), all the mayors must implement the forced evacuation, especially for susceptible areas," he told AFP, adding as many as 40,000 people in the province lived in hazard-prone areas.

The area is set to be soaked in "intense to torrential" rain on Thursday and Friday, which can trigger floods and landslides with the ground still sodden from recent downpours, state weather forecaster Christopher Perez told reporters.

He urged residents of coastal areas to move inland due to the threat of storm surges and giant coastal waves up to three meters (nine feet) high, with shipping also facing the peril of 8–10-meter waves.

A sixth tropical storm, Man-yi, is expected to strengthen into a typhoon before hitting the center of the country as early as Friday, Perez said.

With more than 700,000 people forced out of their homes, the successive storms have taken a toll on the resources of both the government and local households, the UN said late Tuesday.

About 210,000 of those most affected by recent flooding need support for "critical lifesaving and protection efforts over the next three months", the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.

"Typhoons are overlapping. As soon as communities attempt to recover from the shock, the next tropical storm is already hitting them again," UN Philippines Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Gustavo Gonzalez said.

"In this context, the response capacity gets exhausted and budgets depleted."

The initiative "will help us mobilize the capacities and resources of the humanitarian community to better support government institutions at national, regional and local levels," Gonzalez added.

More than 28,000 people displaced by recent storms are still living in evacuation centers operated by local governments, the country's civil defense office said in its latest tally.

Government crews were still working to restore downed power and communication lines and clearing debris from roads.

About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the archipelago nation or its surrounding waters each year, killing scores of people and keeping millions in enduring poverty.

A recent study showed that storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change.