Top US, China officials hold ‘candid and productive’ talks amid tensions

Top U.S. and China officials had “candid and productive” talks Monday in Beijing amid tensions between the countries. 

Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant U.S. secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and Sarah Beran, National Security Council senior director for China and Taiwan affairs, joined U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns in the meeting with Chinese officials, the State Department announced Tuesday.

The agency said the two sides had “candid and productive discussions as part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and build on recent high-level diplomacy between the two countries.”

The China officials in attendance were Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu and Yang Tao, director general of the North American and Oceanian Affairs Department, according to the State Department.

“The two sides exchanged views on the bilateral relationship, cross-Strait issues, channels of communication, and other matters,” the release reads. “U.S. officials made clear that the United States would compete vigorously and stand up for U.S. interests and values.”

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the officials “had candid, constructive and productive communication on improving bilateral relations and managing differences appropriately.”

Wenbin added that China during the talks “stated its serious position on Taiwan and other major issues of principle” and the two sides “agreed to maintain communication.”

The visit comes a couple of months after Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a trip to China amid tensions over a Chinese surveillance balloon shot down by the U.S. after floating through American airspace. 

The U.S.-China relationship has also been strained by China’s ties to Russia amid its war on Ukraine and by Beijing’s recent aggression in the Indo-Pacific as it stresses its stance on Taiwan.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that Blinken has plans to visit China in the coming weeks, though the State Department has not publicly announced a trip.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last week that his Chinese counterpart, Li Shangfu, refused to meet while they both attended the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

The two later spoke briefly on the sidelines of the security conference — but Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the pair “did not have a substantive exchange.”