Blinken to meet Xi on final day of talks in Beijing

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping before he departs Beijing on Monday after a two-day visit, Chinese state media reports. The is the first trip by a US secretary of state to China since 2018. Blinken had meet earlier in the day with China's top foreign policy official, Wang Yi. The last-minute announcement that Xi would talk to Blinken is seen as a special gesture, and a sign that Beijing aims to cool the soaring tensions between the rival powers.