Trump, China’s top diplomat, discuss cooperation, possible Xi meeting
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump, who has attacked China on issues from trade to the South China Sea, held his first face-to-face talks with a member of the Chinese leadership yesterday, and the White House said it was a chance to discuss shared security interests and a possible meeting with President Xi Jinping.
State Councillor Yang Jiechi, China’s top diplomat, met Trump briefly after talks with the new US National Security adviser, H R McMaster, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
A senior US administration official said discussions included bilateral cooperation and the possibility of arranging a meeting between Trump and Xi, but no date was set.
The official said the meeting with Trump lasted five to seven minutes.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer called it “an opportunity to say ‘hi’ to the president” before Yang left.
“This was an opportunity to begin that conversation and talk to them on shared interests of national security,” he said at a regular news briefing.
China’s Foreign Ministry cited Yang as telling Trump that China was willing to enhance exchanges with the United States at all levels, expand coordination and cooperation, and respect each others’ core interests and major concerns.
“Ensuring the steady and healthy development of China-US ties will surely benefit both peoples and the world as a whole,” the ministry paraphrased Yang as saying.
Yang, who outranks China’s foreign minister, was the first top Chinese official to visit the White House since Trump took office on January 20.
His visit followed a phone call between Yang and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week, during which the two affirmed the importance of a constructive US-China relationship.
It was the latest step by the world’s two largest economies to try to put relations back on an even keel after a rocky start following Trump’s election victory.
Trump has been a strong critic of Beijing, accusing China of unfair trade policies, criticizing its island building in the strategic South China Sea, and accusing it of not doing enough to constrain its neighbor, North Korea.
Trump incensed Beijing in December by talking to the president of Taiwan and saying the United States did not have to stick to the “one China” policy, under which Washington acknowledges the Chinese position that there is only one China, of which Taiwan is a part.