Chinese foreign vice-minister Ma Zhaoxu to visit US in latest exchange

Chinese foreign vice-minister Ma Zhaoxu will visit the United States for four days from Thursday, the latest in a string of exchanges between the two sides in recent months.

Ma, who oversees US-China relations, will meet US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell and representatives of "various sectors" during the trip, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday.

The meeting between Ma and Campbell follows a phone call between the two senior officials in March, when they discussed a range of regional and global issues as part of efforts to maintain communication and cooperation.

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Ma Zhaoxu will meet US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell. Photo: AP alt=Ma Zhaoxu will meet US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell. Photo: AP>

Earlier this year, Beijing and Washington also resumed military-to-military talks after communication was suspended in 2022, as relations deteriorated between the two nations. Their defence chiefs are expected to meet during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore later this week.

As a key step to improve strained ties, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China last month and met President Xi Jinping, with the two sides agreeing to continue high-level engagement.

Xi said during the talks that the two countries had made some "positive progress" in various fields since he met US President Joe Biden in San Francisco in November, but that there was room for "further efforts" on problems that remained unresolved.

Beijing and Washington are at loggerheads over a wide range of issues - from China's manufacturing overcapacity to the US selling advanced military technologies to Taiwan.

Both powers also have a strong military presence in the Indo-Pacific, where tensions have been rising over the Taiwan Strait and contested parts of the South China Sea.

Beijing and Washington agreed to maintain dialogue and manage risks during virtual talks on maritime affairs last week.

But Hong Liang, the Chinese foreign ministry's director general for boundary and ocean affairs, urged the US to refrain from interfering in China's maritime disputes with its neighbours.

He also told his US counterpart that Washington should stop supporting "Taiwan independence" - a reference to the island's ruling Democratic Progressive Party which denies Beijing's claim of sovereignty over Taiwan.

The meeting coincided with People's Liberation Army drills that encircled Taiwan following the inauguration of the DPP's William Lai Ching-te as the island's new leader.

Washington raised "serious concerns" over the military exercises and urged Beijing to act with restraint. The US said it was closely monitoring the PLA activities.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China, to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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