Senior US and Chinese officials yesterday held “candid” talks in Beijing, days after the two countries’ defense chiefs squared off at a security forum.
US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink met with Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭), becoming the most senior US official to publicly travel to Beijing since an alleged Chinese spy balloon was downed in the US.
Both sides described the talks as “candid” and “productive” in their readouts, with the US Department of State saying that the exchange was part of ongoing efforts to restore “high-level diplomacy.”
Photo: Reuters
The Chinese side called the exchange “constructive.”
Sarah Beran, the US National Security Council’s senior director for China affairs, and US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns were also at the meeting, along with Yang Tao (楊濤), director-general of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ North American and Oceanian Affairs Department, the statements said.
Kritenbrink discussed “cross-strait issues” with Chinese officials, the US statement said, while China said that it stated its “solemn position” on Taiwan and other “major principles.”
The meeting was the latest exchange in a flurry of high-level diplomacy as the world’s two largest economies try to find common ground for dialogue, potentially laying the groundwork for a call between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Last month, CIA Director William Burns made a secret visit to Beijing, while Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao (王文濤) met with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪), and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan sat down with Chinese Chinese Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Wang Yi (王毅) for two days in Europe.
Despite those efforts, the relationship remains strained.
A Chinese warship crossed the bow of a US one in the Taiwan Strait at a distance of about 150m, the Pentagon said on Saturday.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) accused the US of “sending warships halfway around the world to China’s doorstep in a provocative way,” at a regular press briefing in Beijing yesterday.
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