Chinese President Xi Jinping and US Secretary of State Anthony Brinken to meet in Beijing to ease tensions |

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with US Secretary of State Anthony Brinken in Beijing as the world’s two largest economies seek to defuse escalating tensions.

He said after a 30-minute meeting on Monday. Xi he said he hopes Mr. Blinken State media will make a “more positive contribution” to the “stabilization” of US-China relations, state media reported.

Mr Xi also said the two sides had “made progress and reached agreement” on “some specific issues”.

The Chinese leader spoke to Mr. Blinken as he sat at the head of a long conference table in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Blinken said the two sides agreed on the need to stabilize relations and that the United States would work with China on areas of mutual interest such as food safety.

He also reiterated the Washington government’s long-standing “one China” policy that the United States maintains official ties with Beijing and “firm informal” ties with Taiwan.

But Blinken said he had raised US “concerns” to Xi about China’s “provocative” actions in the Taiwan Strait.

This comes after Blinken, who is in China for a second day of talks, met with China’s top diplomat earlier Monday, Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Sunday.

He is the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit China in five years, and is also the highest-level U.S. official to visit China for the first time since his last visit to China. Joe Biden Appointed in January 2021.

The visit had been postponed from the beginning of the next year spy balloon sagawhen it flew over U.S. airspace for days before a suspected Chinese surveillance device was shot down.

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Blinken’s visit is expected to kick off new visits by senior U.S. and Chinese officials, possibly including a meeting between Xi and Biden in the coming months.

In previous “positive” meetings between Mr. Brinken and Chinese officials, both sides expressed a willingness to talk.

But it has shown little inclination to bend its strong positions, such as Taiwan, an autonomous island that Beijing claims as its own territory.

They are also at odds over issues ranging from trade, US efforts to curb China’s semiconductor industry, to the ruling Communist Party’s human rights record.

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Brinken “emphasized the importance of diplomacy and maintaining open communication channels” in a meeting with Qin on Sunday, according to a statement by the US State Department.

Regular consultations “reduce the risk of misunderstandings and miscalculations,” the ministry added.

China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Mr Blinken’s visit “coincides with a critical crossroads in China-US relations”.

He also called on the US to lift its unilateral sanctions and suppression of Chinese technology, accusing the US of “misperception” of China as the “worst point” of current China relations.