Blinken heads to China vowing to raise 'real concerns' but with low expectations for breakthroughs

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is en route to Beijing for a high-stakes visit meant to steer relations between the United States and China back on course after months of inflamed tensions between the two nations.

Officials from both governments have signaled low expectations for the visit, with a senior State Department official telling reporters earlier this week that he does not expect "a long list of deliverables."

Instead, US officials are framing the trip as an effort to resume normal channels of communication with China in order to avoid conflict between two of the globe's great powers.

"What we're working to do on this trip is to really carry forward what President (Joe) Biden and President Xi (Jinping) agreed to in Bali at the end of last year, which was to establish sustained, regular lines of communication at senior levels across our governments precisely so that we can make sure that we are communicating as clearly as possible to avoid, as best possible, misunderstandings and miscommunications," Blinken said Friday prior to his departure at a news conference alongside Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.

Blinken's primary goal in China is to reestablish channels of communication, especially direct military-to-military communication, between Washington and Beijing, according to a senior State Department official.

The Biden administration's relationship with Beijing is one of its most complicated and consequential, and one that has seen months of strain, including two military-related incidents in recent weeks.

Blinken's trip, which had been announced by Biden and Xi after their meeting last year, was originally scheduled to happen in February and had been seen as a key follow-on engagement. However, it was postponed after the discovery of a suspected Chinese spy balloon transiting the US, which Blinken said at the time "created the conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip."