CNN Opinion: June 19, 2023

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Beijing after a canceled visit in February due to the deployment of an alleged Chinese spy balloon over the United States. The world is carefully watching for any signs of warming in the increasingly frosty bilateral relationship.

US officials have kept expectations for the Blinken trip to China decidedly low, emphasizing that a key aim is to “reduce the risk of miscalculation so that we do not veer into potential conflict.”

That should come as welcome news here on the European continent, where the sentiment among many government officials appears to be for a warming of relations with China — lest progress on key issues such as climate change and the war in Ukraine get set back without buy-in from Beijing.