US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived Sunday morning in Beijing, on a visit that is the highest by an American diplomat since 2018 and aims to try to ease bilateral tensions.

And at a time when much progress is not expected due to the many points of contention, the goal remains to work to start a diplomatic thaw and maintain a dialogue to "responsibly manage Sino-American relations," according to the US State Department.

Time is running out because next year is the deadline for holding elections in both the United States and Taiwan, which China considers one of its provinces that it wants to re-annex by force if necessary.

Blinken is spending two days in the Chinese capital as part of this visit, which was originally scheduled for February, but was suddenly canceled at the time, after a Chinese balloon flew over American territory, which Washington considered to be for "espionage" purposes, while Beijing confirmed that it was a meteorological vehicle that deviated from its course.

While Blinken was heading to China, US President Joe Biden downplayed the balloon incident, saying, "I don't think the (Chinese) leaders knew where it was, what was inside it, or what was going on." "I think it was more embarrassing" for Beijing, he told reporters on Saturday, "than it was intentional."

Biden hopes to meet again with President Xi Jinping "in the coming months" with the aim of "talking about our legitimate differences, but also about areas where we can agree." The two presidents had a long and friendly meeting in November 2022 on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali.

The two leaders are likely to attend the next G20 summit in September in New Delhi. Xi is invited to San Francisco in November when the United States hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum.

Speaking in Washington before his departure, Blinken wanted to sound somewhat optimistic. He said this two-day visit should "open direct lines of communication so that our two countries can responsibly manage our relationship, including by addressing some challenges and bad perceptions and in order to avoid miscalculations."

He added that "intense competition requires continuous diplomacy to ensure that it does not turn into a confrontation or conflict" because "the world expects the cooperation of the United States and China."

Blinken was speaking at a news conference alongside his Singaporean counterpart, Vivian Balakrishnan. The latter described the Sino-American relationship as a "challenge of the century," saying, "The rest of the world will watch you. We hope, and I believe, that you will be able to manage your differences."

Taiwan represents the most thorny issue between the two powers. Beijing carried out historic military maneuvers around the island in August in response to a visit to Taiwan by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as part of an Asian tour.

Before Blinken's visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the United States should "respect China's core concerns" and cooperate with Beijing.

"The United States should abandon the illusion of dealing with China from a position of strength. China and the United States should develop relations based on mutual respect and equality, and respect their differences," he added.

Blinken's visit is the first by a US Secretary of State to China since a visit in October 2018 by his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, who later pursued a strategy of confrontation with Beijing in the last years of Donald Trump's presidency.

Since then, the Biden administration has maintained this hard line and gone further in some areas, including by imposing export controls aimed at limiting Beijing's purchase and manufacture of advanced chips "for military applications".

But the US administration wants to cooperate with China on key issues such as climate. Blinken's visit also comes at a time when part of China is experiencing a heat wave, with a new record temperature recorded in mid-June.

For Danny Russell, a former senior State Department official, each side has an interest in this visit: China hopes to avoid new US restrictions on technology and any new support for Taiwan. The United States, for its part, wants to prevent any incident that could lead to a military confrontation.

"Blinken's short visit will not solve any of the big problems in the US-China relationship, and not necessarily the small ones either. Nor will it prevent either side from pursuing their competitive agendas," Russell said.

"But his visit could revive much-needed direct dialogue and send a signal that the two countries are moving from rhetoric of anger in front of the media to more sober talks behind closed doors," he added.