Blinken ends latest trip to China with visit to Beijing record store

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns during a visit to Li-Pi record store in Beijing (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded his latest visit to China with a stop at a Beijing record store where he bought albums by Taylor Swift and Chinese rocker Dou Wei in a symbolic nod to cross-cultural exchanges he had been promoting for three days.

Music, he said at the Li-Pi shop on his way to the airport late on Friday, “is the best connector, regardless of geography”.