Blinken thanked Xi for hosting him, and spoke of the “obligation and responsibility” the two countries have to manage tensions between them.

That relationship is “one of the most consequential in the world,” he said during a news conference before wrapping up the trip.

“Here in Beijing, I had important conversations with President Xi, and I had added substantive and constructive discussions with my counterparts,” Blinken said.

The roughly 35-minute meeting with Xi in the Great Hall of the People was seen as a critical sign to the trip’s success, though it wasn’t confirmed ahead of time. After Xi met with Microsoft founder Bill Gates earlier this month, a failure to organize a Xi-Blinken meeting might have constituted a deliberate snub by Chinese authorities.

“If Xi had refused to meet with Blinken, it would have signaled that the Chinese leader was abandoning the diplomatic exchange process he agreed to with Biden last fall,” said Jacob Stokes, a senior fellow for Indo-Pacific issues at the Center for a New American Security. “So, the fact that it happened probably means more than the outcomes.”

During his meetings, Blinken said, he touched on several topics including tensions over Taiwan, North Korean aggression, trade, human rights, the war in Ukraine and wrongfully detained U.S. citizens. He also spoke with Chinese leaders about areas where the two powerful countries share a mutual interest, including the climate, macroeconomic stability, public health and food security.

State Department officials did not expect the countries to reach a breakthrough on any of the issues in which they’re most divided. The administration described Blinken’s trip as part of a longer-term effort to cool the bilateral rancor that has effectively frozen high-level diplomatic dialogue for almost five months.

Though the trip is a sign of abating tensions, Blinken noted that the two countries were still deeply divided.

“Progress is hard. It takes time and [it’s] not the product of one visit, one trip, one conversation,” he told reporters.

“My hope and expectation is we will have better communications, better engagement going forward. That’s certainly not going to solve every problem between us — far from it. But it is critical to doing what we both agree is necessary. And that is responsibly managing the relationship.”

Alexander Ward contributed to this report.