Low-key welcome shows what's expected

The Chinese side's nonchalant attitude to the Shanghai leg of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's three-day visit to China, which is about culture, education and business, poses a sharp contrast with the positive attitude it showed toward that part of US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's visit from April 6 to 9.

That is a manifestation of Beijing's dissatisfaction with what the US side has done to improve ties since the two heads of state agreed on the importance and urgency of repairing bilateral relations in their talks via telephone on April 2.

Reinforcing the discrepancy between the words and deeds of the US, the US House of Representatives passed two bills on Saturday providing weapons worth billions of dollars to China's Taiwan island, and banning TikTok, with the latter bill passing the Senate on Wednesday.