Politics

Antony Blinken visited China, the first American secretary of state to do so in five years. He met several senior officials, as well as China’s president, Xi Jinping, who said they had made “progress” towards stabilising relations. Both sides appeared open to further talks, but no agreements were reached. Mr Blinken said there are “many issues on which we profoundly, even vehemently, disagree”. Later, at an event in California, Joe Biden called Mr Xi a dictator and said the Chinese leader had been embarrassed when America shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon in February. China said the comments were absurd.