China's new ambassador to the United States arrived Tuesday in New York, the Chinese Embassy said, shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden said he believes heightened bilateral tensions will "thaw very shortly."
Xie Feng, a former vice foreign minister and a specialist in China-U.S. relations, fills the post vacated by Qin Gang, who became foreign minister last December.
Sino-U.S. relations are facing "serious difficulties and challenges," Xie told reporters at a New York airport.
But he added the two countries should work together to "manage differences" by properly handling sensitive issues such as Taiwan, while expanding dialogue and cooperation to return bilateral ties to the right track, according to the embassy.
At the conclusion of the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima on Sunday, Biden expressed optimism over U.S.-China relations at a press conference, although he did not provide a reason.
U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a press briefing Tuesday that Washington "welcomes the arrival" of Xie and looks forward to working with him.
"We remain committed, as we've said on a number of occasions, to maintaining channels of communication" with China "to responsibly manage competition," he said.
Tensions between the world's two largest economies have been running high over Taiwan and an incident in February that saw a Chinese balloon fly over sensitive areas of the continental United States, in what Washington claimed was a surveillance operation.
Communist-led China regards the self-ruled democratic island as a renegade province to be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
Beijing sharply reacted to a meeting between Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen and then U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi last August and her talks with Pelosi's successor Kevin McCarthy in April.
U.S. political news website Politico reported Monday that Xie was selected as ambassador over Assistant Foreign Minister Hua Chunying, a former spokeswoman known for her sharp-tongued pushback against foreign critics.
Earlier this month, Biden's top security adviser Jake Sullivan and China's chief diplomat Wang Yi held more than eight hours of what both governments called "candid, substantive and constructive" talks in Vienna, suggesting that nascent efforts to ease the countries' diplomatic stalemate are under way.
Later this week, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao is scheduled to visit the United States and hold talks with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
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