The United States has officially invited China's top diplomat Wang Yi to Washington after he was reinstated as foreign minister last week, a State Department official said Tuesday.
The invitation was extended during a meeting of senior diplomats from the two countries in the U.S. capital on Monday, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Following a mysterious one-month absence from public duties, Wang's predecessor Qin Gang was abruptly dismissed from the post just seven months after being appointed, with the Chinese government giving no explanation for the removal.
Asked whether China has accepted the invitation, Miller said he would not speak on behalf of Beijing.
But he added at a press briefing, "We certainly expect that it is something that they would accept and is a trip that we expect to happen, but we have not yet scheduled a date."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing in mid-June, meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and senior officials in a series of talks.
The officials included Wang and Qin. At the time, Blinken, who became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit China since 2018, originally extended the invitation to then foreign minister Qin.
Wang was foreign minister from 2013 to 2022, before becoming the head of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission Office, a position regarded as the country's top diplomat.
As part of efforts to re-engage with China before the 2024 U.S. presidential race gets into full swing, an increasing number of senior officials from Washington have been holding talks with their Chinese counterparts in recent weeks.
On Monday, in addition to extending the invitation, Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, held a "candid, substantive, and productive discussion" with Yang Tao, director general of North American affairs at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, according to the department.
It said the meeting, hosted by Kritenbrink and Sarah Beran, the National Security Council's senior director for China and Taiwan issues, was aimed at maintaining open lines of communication and responsibly managing the bilateral relationship.
Since Blinken's visit, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate envoy John Kerry have separately visited Beijing for talks with high-ranking Chinese officials, with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo planning to do the same in the near future.
Although significant disagreements remain over nearly all major political and economic issues, the increased communications are taking place as the United States and China explore a summit between President Joe Biden and Xi later this year, possibly on the sidelines of an international conference.
