Blinken to Travel to China Next Week, Carrying Out Trip Postponed after Spy Balloon Incident

Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens as he attends a joint news conference with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, not pictured, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, June 8, 2023. (AP)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens as he attends a joint news conference with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, not pictured, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, June 8, 2023. (AP)
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Blinken to Travel to China Next Week, Carrying Out Trip Postponed after Spy Balloon Incident

Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens as he attends a joint news conference with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, not pictured, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, June 8, 2023. (AP)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens as he attends a joint news conference with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, not pictured, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, June 8, 2023. (AP)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is planning to travel to China this month as the Biden administration pushes to improve badly deteriorated ties with the Chinese.

US officials say Blinken expects to be in Beijing on June 18 for meetings with senior Chinese officials, including with Foreign Minister Qin Gang and possibly President Xi Jinping.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because neither the State Department nor the Chinese foreign ministry have yet confirmed the trip.

The visit, which was agreed between Xi and President Joe Biden last year at a meeting in Bali, had been initially planned for February but was postponed after the spy balloon incident in which the US shot down a Chinese aircraft that Beijing insisted was a weather balloon that had strayed off course.

Since then, there have been contacts between the US and China, but they have been rare as tensions have risen over China's conduct in the South China Sea, aggressive actions toward Taiwan and support for Russia's war against Ukraine.

Last week, China's defense minister rebuffed a request from US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for a meeting on the sidelines of a security symposium in Singapore.

However, China's commerce minister traveled to the US last month and Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, in Vienna in early May.

The White House said at the time that the meeting “was part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage competition. The two sides agreed to maintain this important strategic channel of communication to advance these objectives.”

More recently, the top US diplomat for the Asia-Pacific region, Daniel Kritenbrink, traveled to China earlier this week along with a senior National Security Council official.



French Politicians Condemn Mosque Stabbing Attack

A protestor holds a sign reading "Justice for Aboubakar, Islamophobia kills" during a gathering in tribute to Aboubakar, the worshipper killed in a mosque at La Grand-Combe, and against Islamophobia, at the Place de la Republique in Paris on April 27, 2025. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)
A protestor holds a sign reading "Justice for Aboubakar, Islamophobia kills" during a gathering in tribute to Aboubakar, the worshipper killed in a mosque at La Grand-Combe, and against Islamophobia, at the Place de la Republique in Paris on April 27, 2025. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)
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French Politicians Condemn Mosque Stabbing Attack

A protestor holds a sign reading "Justice for Aboubakar, Islamophobia kills" during a gathering in tribute to Aboubakar, the worshipper killed in a mosque at La Grand-Combe, and against Islamophobia, at the Place de la Republique in Paris on April 27, 2025. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)
A protestor holds a sign reading "Justice for Aboubakar, Islamophobia kills" during a gathering in tribute to Aboubakar, the worshipper killed in a mosque at La Grand-Combe, and against Islamophobia, at the Place de la Republique in Paris on April 27, 2025. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)

French politicians on Sunday condemned an attack in which a man was stabbed to death while praying at a mosque in southern France, an incident that was captured on video and disseminated on Snapchat.
President Emmanuel Macron offered his support to the man's family and to the French Muslim community, writing in a post on X: "Racism and religiously motivated hatred will never belong in France."
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau on Sunday visited the town of Ales where Friday's attack took place and met with religious leaders, Reuters reported.
He said the suspect, who was still at large, had made anti-Muslim comments and had said he wanted to kill others. "So there is a fascination with violence," Retailleau told French broadcaster BFM TV.
The town's prosecutor told reporters on Sunday the suspect had been identified. The suspect's brother had been questioned by investigators on Saturday.
A march to commemorate the victim took place in the nearby town of La Grand-Combe, on Sunday afternoon and a demonstration against Islamophobia was expected in Paris in the evening.
France, a country that prides itself on its homegrown secularism known as "laicite," has the largest Muslim population in Europe, numbering more than 6 million and making up around 10% of the country's population.