Beijing, China - Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday, after a whirlwind diplomatic visit that took him to Shanghai and now Beijing over only three days.

The meeting will see Secretary Blinken discuss points of tensions between the two superpowers, particularly over trade policy and territorial issues in both the South China Sea and Taiwan.

In a statement released by the State Department late on Thursday, Blinken revealed that President Biden had asked him to discuss key issues with the Chinese leader, including not only military conversations but also other points of concern.

Specifically, Blinken will discuss "resuming cooperation on counternarcotics; restarting our military-to-military conversations; looking together at the future of artificial intelligence – its risks and safety issues; and trying to strengthen our people-to-people connections; but also, critically, managing responsibly our differences."

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Blinken said that the meeting will require "active diplomacy" and a sense of "shared responsibility" between the two nations. In particular, China and the US want to avoid "misunderstandings" and "miscalculations" that could cause an escalation of tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.

The meeting with President Xi follows days of soft diplomacy set against the backdrop of US-Filipino military drills, tensions over China's role in both Russia and Iran, and Congress' TikTok ban.

Prior to the meeting with President Xi Jinping, Secretary Blinken had more than five-hour-long talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in meetings and a working lunch in Beijing.

In a joint statement issued along with Blinken, Foreign Minister Yi said "the China-U.S. relationship is beginning to stabilize," but also warning that "negative factors" are still "increasing and building."

Particularly, Wang pointed to China's "legitimate development rights" which, he says, have been "unreasonably suppressed."

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Going forward, the foreign minister asked for "mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and winning cooperation" between the two countries.

"We have always called for respect of each other’s core interests and urge the United States not to interfere in China’s internal affairs, not to hold China’s development back, and not to step on China’s red lines on China’s sovereignty, security, and development interests."