BEIJING: China’s top diplomat met with the new US ambassador to Beijing on Tuesday, calling for “healthy” bilateral ties while Washington’s envoy pressed Beijing on trade, drugs and immigration as the two powers wage a tariff war.
The meeting came ahead of what the White House said was a likely call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping this week, after the world’s two biggest economies accused each other of jeopardising a preliminary trade deal.
Beijing and Washington last month agreed to slash staggeringly high tariffs on each other for 90 days after talks between top officials in Geneva.
But the United States has since accused China of violating the terms of the deal, a claim that Beijing called “bogus” and “contrary to the facts”.
China’s foreign minister Wang Yi on Tuesday said he hopes recently appointed US ambassador David Perdue “will play a positive role in promoting the healthy, stable and sustainable development of China-US relations”, according to a readout published by Beijing’s foreign ministry.
Wang said China opposed what he called recent US measures that “jeopardise China’s legitimate rights and interests”.
Washington should “create the necessary conditions for China-US relations to return to the right track”, Wang said.
Meanwhile Perdue said on X that he “emphasized President Trump’s priorities on trade, fentanyl, and illegal immigration”.
Washington has long accused China of exporting chemicals used to make the fentanyl sold in the United States, which has reported tens of thousands of deaths related to opioids annually.
And the Trump administration has targeted Chinese nationals who entered the United States both legally and illegally, with the president vowing last week to aggressively revoke Chinese student visas.
