BEIJING: China's top diplomat will visit the United States this week, becoming the highest-level Chinese official to make the trip since President Donald Trump was elected.
State Councillor Yang Jiechi will meet with senior American officials on Monday and Tuesday to discuss "bilateral ties and issues of common concern", the foreign ministry announced late Sunday.
US-China relations have been strained by Trump's criticisms of Beijing's handling of North Korea and its trade policies as well as his questioning of Washington's long-standing "One China" policy.
The official Xinhua news agency confirmed Yang will be the first senior Chinese official to visit the US since Trump took office.
At the top of the agenda will be the arrangements for a meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, a researcher at the China Institute of International Studies told Xinhua.
It remains unclear when the two leaders will have their first encounter, said Tao Wenzhao, an expert on Sino-US relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
He said it would be important for both countries to first address some of the issues that have divided them.
"On this visit, it's important for the two sides to move forward their communication," he told AFP.
They "will carry out a wide-ranging discussion on various global problems and form a consensus. On that basis, the two countries' leaders can meet".
The relationship got off to a rocky start after Trump accepted a phone call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, angering China by breaking decades of diplomatic precedent.
He upped the ante by suggesting he might recognise Taiwan's sovereignty unless China was willing to negotiate more favourable trade terms with the US -- a non-starter for Beijing, which sees the self-ruling island as part of its own territory awaiting reunification.
Seeking to clean up the fallout, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier this month at a G20 foreign ministers meeting in Germany, where the American urged Beijing to help rein in North Korea after its series of nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
Tensions between the two countries have eased somewhat since Trump reaffirmed Washington's "One China" policy in a conciliatory phone call with Xi earlier this month.
Since then, Beijing has stepped up its pressure on Pyongyang by announcing a ban on imports of coal from North Korea -- an economic lifeline for the isolated country.
On the presidential campaign trail last year, Trump regularly attacked China for stealing American jobs and running a massive, unfairly won trade surplus with the US which he would reverse by whatever means necessary.
CASS's Tao said he was "optimistic" the relationship would soon be back on track.
"Trump is a very smart person," he said. "He knows that the Sino-US relationship is in America's national interest."
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