Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is holding key meetings in Bangkok with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. - PHOTOS: REUTERS
BANGKOK (Reuters/AFP): Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had “candid, substantive and fruitful strategic communication” with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, aimed at furthering a pledge of dialogue by their leaders, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
The two officials met in Bangkok to properly handle important and sensitive issues in US-China relations, the ministry said.
They also discussed how Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden could “maintain regular contact to provide strategic guidance for bilateral relations... and make good use of the current strategic communication channels”.
Beijing and Washington have clashed in recent years on flashpoint issues, from technology and trade to human rights, as well as over the self-ruled island and competing claims in the South China Sea.
In a bid to improve some of the worst relations in decades, Mr Biden met Mr Xi in San Francisco in November for talks that both sides described as a qualified success.
Wang and Sullivan “had candid, substantive and fruitful strategic communication on implementing the consensus reached at the San Francisco meeting... and on properly handling important and sensitive issues in China-US relations”,China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.
The topics discussed in the two-day talks included Taiwan, which held elections in January.
In the run-up to the poll, Chinese officials slammed president-elect Lai Ching-te as a dangerous separatist who would take Taiwan down the “evil path” of independence.
But Washington congratulated Lai, with Beijing saying it “strongly deplored” the statement.
During the latest talks, Wang stressed that Taiwan was “China’s internal affair, and the regional election in Taiwan cannot change the basic reality that Taiwan is part of China”, according to ministry statement.
“The biggest risk to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is the so-called ‘Taiwan independence’ movement. The biggest challenge to China-US relations is also the ‘Taiwan independence’ movement,” it added. - REUTERS / AFP
