Daniel Kreitenbrink, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, was the most prominent US official to be confirmed visiting China on Monday since tensions escalated between Washington and Beijing following the downing of a Chinese spy balloon over the United States in early February.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced at the time the postponement of his planned visit to China, and Beijing has since flatly refused official visits, despite two top US and Chinese defense officials meeting briefly at a forum in Singapore over the weekend.
For its part, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that Kreitenbrink and Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaozhou “had frank, constructive and fruitful communication on promoting the development of relations and properly managing differences between China and the United States.”
Beijing said it had announced its “official position on self-ruled Taiwan” and other issues, and that the two sides agreed to continue contacts.
For its part, the US State Department stated that the officials had “frank and fruitful discussions within the framework of efforts to keep the lines of communication open and build on the recent high-level diplomatic efforts between the two countries.”
On Sunday, the US Navy complained of an “unsafe interaction” in the Taiwan Strait, after a Chinese warship passed 137 meters from a US destroyer. Last month, a Chinese fighter jet flew dangerously close to a US reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea, where Beijing disputes sovereignty rights in the area with other countries.
Reports indicated that CIA Director William Burns made a secret visit last month to the Chinese capital, in another indication of the two sides’ interest in re-establishing contact through various channels.
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