US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken meets Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing at the start of two days of talks with Chinese officials.
This is the first visit by a US diplomat to China in nearly five years.
US officials say the main goal of the talks is to stabilize the highly strained relationship.
It comes nearly five months after Blinkenship’s previous visit was postponed after a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over US airspace.
The U.S. is lowering expectations for the trip, and both sides have made it clear they don’t expect major breakthroughs.
U.S. officials say the move is aimed at reopening high-level lines of communication and stabilizing ties that have been strained since the balloon incident.
China has conducted military exercises near Taiwan, which Beijing considers an integral part of China. The United States maintains close ties with Taiwan’s democratically elected government.
A full agenda includes meetings with Qin Gang and senior Chinese foreign policy official Wang Yi.
The war in Ukraine, trade disputes over advanced computer technologies, the fentanyl drug epidemic in the United States and Chinese human rights practices are all topics Americans expect to debate.
Chinese officials reacted coolly to Mr Blinken’s visit, questioning whether the US was sincere in its efforts to improve relations.
It is not clear whether he will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Mr Blinken is the highest-ranking US government official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.
“If we want to make sure, as we do, that our confrontation with China doesn’t go into conflict, that’s where you start the conversation,” Mr. Blinken told reporters on Friday”.
He later said he hopes to meet President Xi Jinping in the next few months.
A meeting between President Biden and Xi Jinping in Bali in November briefly eased fears of a new Cold War, but high-level contact between the two leaders has been rare since the balloon incident.
