A high-level U.S. delegation held talks with China’s vice foreign minister on Sunday and Monday in Langfang, a city neighbouring Beijing, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
The visit aimed to follow up on U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent talks with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and prepare for Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit there early next year, the U.S. State Department said on Saturday.
At the talks in Langfang, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink, Senior Director for China Affairs of the White House National Security Council, Laura Rosenberger, and Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng had an “extensive exchange” of views on international and regional issues of common concern, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing in Beijing.
“The talks were frank, in-depth and constructive,” Wang said.
The relatively upbeat note about the talks contrasted sharply with what Wang said at the same news conference about the United States’ imposition of sanctions on two Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses in Tibet.
Biden and Xi engaged in blunt talks over Taiwan and North Korea on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia in mid-November, a meeting aimed at preventing strained U.S.-China relations from deteriorating into a new Cold War.
The two leaders pledged more frequent communications at a time of simmering differences also on human rights, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and economic issues.
The State Department had said that Kritenbrink and Rosenberger’s visit would follow up on the Biden-Xi meeting “to continue responsibly managing the competition between our two countries and to explore potential areas of cooperation”.
A senior Biden administration official said U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for China and Taiwan Rick Waters also attended the meeting, where the U.S. officials emphasized that competition must not veer into conflict.
They discussed Russia’s war in Ukraine, North Korea’s “threats to regional security” and “bringing home U.S. citizens who are wrongfully detained or subject to exit bans in China”, the official said.
Sources : Reuters
