US and Chinese diplomats seek to prevent escalation of tensions

Senior diplomats from the United States and China held “frank and productive” talks in Beijing and agreed to keep lines of communication open to prevent tensions escalating into conflict, officials said Tuesday.

Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, was the highest-ranking US official to visit China on Monday since tensions escalated between Washington and Beijing over the downing of a Chinese spy balloon over US soil earlier February.

At the time, Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a planned trip to China, and Beijing has since rebuffed attempts at official contact, though two senior defense officials from both nations briefly interacted at a forum in Singapore during weekend.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Kritenbrink and Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu “maintained frank, constructive and fruitful communication on promoting the improvement of China-US relations and proper management of differences.”

Beijing said it reiterated its “formal position on Taiwan” and other issues and that the two sides agreed to maintain communication.

The State Department added that the two officials had “frank and productive discussions as part of ongoing efforts to keep the lines of communication open and build on recent high-level diplomacy between the two countries.”

The US Navy complained on Sunday about an “unsafe interaction” in the Taiwan Strait, after a Chinese warship came within 137 meters of a US destroyer.

Last month, a Chinese fighter jet came dangerously close to a US reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea, where Beijing shares territorial claims with other nations.

CIA Director William Burns made a secret trip to Beijing last month, in another indication of interest on both sides in reestablishing communication through various channels.

[Con información de The Associated Press]

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