High-level US envoys to visit China in effort to repair ties

The US are sending high-level officials to Beijing in an effort to repair relations with China following a pledge from President Biden last month.

President Biden promised his Chinese counterpart he would move to repair relations between the superpowers during a meeting last month.

The US government is sending its first high-level delegation to China since a pledge made last month by Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden to repair frayed relations.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink will join National Security Council Senior Director for China and Taiwan Laura Rosenberger on the December 11-14 trip.

The two will visit China, South Korea and Japan.

US President Joe Biden meets with China's President Xi Jinping during a virtual summit from the Roosevelt Room in 2021.

In China, Kritenbrink will follow up on Biden’s meeting in Bali last month with Xi in which the pair pledged “to continue responsibly managing the competition between our two countries and to explore potential areas of cooperation”, the State Department said.

Kritenbrink will also prepare for Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to China in early 2023, the first visit by the top US diplomat in four years, it added.

The United States and China are the two largest economies in the world, spend more than any other nations on their militaries and are locked in fierce strategic competition.

In their Bali meeting, the two leaders discussed contentious issues, including Taiwan’s future, US restrictions on Chinese high-tech imports and China’s moves to expand its influence around the world.

Biden left his meeting with Xi proclaiming that there need not be a new Cold War, while Xi told Biden the two countries “share more, not less, common interests”.