What’s new: Senior Chinese and U.S. foreign affairs officials met in Beijing Monday and held “candid, constructive and productive” talks, the foreign ministry said, amid intensified tensions between the two nations.
Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu met with U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs Daniel Kritenbrink, senior director of the National Security Council for China affairs Sarah Beran, and Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China, according to a foreign ministry statement published Tuesday.
Yang Tao, director general of the foreign ministry’s North American and Oceanian Affairs Department, held discussions with the U.S. officials on “improving Sino-U.S. relations and properly managing differences.” The Chinese side also emphasized Beijing’s position on the Taiwan issue, the statement said.
Washington called the discussions “candid and productive” and part of “ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and build on recent high-level diplomacy between the two countries,” according to a U.S. State Department statement.
The background: Strained relations between Beijing and Washington have intensified as Chinese and U.S. military officials traded barbs over the Taiwan issue at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s top security summit, this past weekend. Also last week, China denounced U.S. sanctions on a handful of Chinese companies for allegedly facilitating the production of fentanyl-laced drugs.
Earlier in May, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi met with U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in Vienna to discuss ways to “remove the hurdles” facing bilateral relations after the U.S. downed an alleged Chinese spy balloon in early February. In November 2022, the two countries’ presidents met in Bali on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Leaders’ Summit in hopes of easing long-simmering tensions.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Leila Hashemi (leilahashemi@caixin.com)
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