Blinken flew to Shanghai, where he began his trip ahead of difficult negotiations with China

Mr. Blinken’s plane has landed in Shanghai, where he will meet with business leaders and youth in a friendly start to the trip.

A U.S. diplomat will meet with top Chinese officials in Beijing on Friday, expected to ask China for restraint on Taiwan and outline U.S. concerns about China’s trade practices, a key issue for President Joe Biden in an election year.

But at the same time, Mr. Blinken will seek to stabilize relations, with tensions between the two largest economies significantly reduced since his last visit in June. At the time, he was the highest-ranking US official to visit China in five years, and his trip was followed by a meeting between the presidents of the two countries in November.

Blinken began his visit to Shanghai to highlight the warm ties between the American and Chinese people, his aide said. A friendly visit by the US secretary of state, the first to the booming metropolis since Hillary Clinton in 2010, would have been unthinkable until recently amid talk of a new Cold War between the two countries by hardliners in both countries. A senior U.S. official said before Blinken’s trip that the United States and China were “in a different place than we were a year ago, when bilateral relations were at an all-time low.”

Pressure not to support Russia

The US was initially happy that Beijing was not directly supplying Russia with weapons, but in recent weeks the United States has accused China of supporting Moscow’s industry with materials and technology. Washington urged European leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was recently in Beijing, to pressure China not to support Russia.

“If China wants good relations with Europe and other countries, it cannot foment the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War,” Blinken said Friday after the G7 meeting on the Italian island of Capri.