As the two countries brace for Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit, a top U.S. delegation was in China today and discussed ways to strengthen relations and the Taiwan issue, according to Beijing.
The trip follows a summit in Bali, Indonesia, last month where Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden committed to mending strained ties.
China says the discussions took held on Sunday and Monday in the northern province of Hebei and included top US diplomat for East Asia Daniel Kritenbrink, Senior Director for China and Taiwan at the National Security Council Laura Rosenberger, and Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng of China.
The two sides "had in-depth discussions on implementing the consensus reached at the Bali Summit between the two presidents" according to Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry.
Wang stated that the discussion included Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that China claims as its own and a growing source of tension between Beijing and Washington.
Speaking about "strengthening exchanges at all levels" Xie, Kritenbrink, and Rosenberger "agreed to maintain communication" according to Wang.
The State Department said the delegation's visit would create the framework for Blinken's journey to China in early 2023, the first by the top U.S. diplomat in more than four years.
The discussions, according to a senior US official, were "candid and substantive" and they also touched on North Korea and Russia's conflict in Ukraine.
In order to guarantee that the United States and China maintain open lines of communication and manage the competition responsibly, Kritenbrink and Rosenberger emphasized "the importance of setting a floor under the bilateral relationship," the official said.
"They emphasized that competition must not veer into conflict."
Following China, Kritenbrink and Rosenberger will hold discussions in U.S. allies South Korea and Japan.
Over a wide range of topics, including trade, technology, and human rights, relations between the United States and China have deteriorated recently.
Xi and Biden covered sensitive topics in their meeting in Bali, including Taiwan's future, US import restrictions on Chinese high-tech products, and Beijing's efforts to increase its influence globally.
Following the summit, both Washington and Beijing made clear that they will continue to cooperate on a number of topics, such as climate change, health, and food security -- and they vowed to maintain open lines of communication.
When they parted ways, Xi told Biden that the two nations "share more, not less, common interests" and that a new Cold War was not necessary.
