President Donald Trump held his first face-to-face meeting with a member of China’s leadership on Monday at a time of tensions between Washington and Beijing, and the White House said the Chinese visit was a chance to discuss shared security interests.
State Councilor Yang Jiechi, China’s top diplomat, was taken to see Trump briefly after talks with new U. S. National Security advisor, H. R. McMaster, and Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.
“After the meeting ended, I believe the state councilor was taken (and) had an opportunity to say ‘hi’ to the president before he left,” Spicer told a regular briefing.
“This was an opportunity to begin that conversation and talk to them on shared interests of national security,” he said of the meetings with Yang.
Yang, who outranks China’s foreign minister, is the first top Chinese official to visit the White House since Trump took office on Jan. 20.
His visit to Washington followed a phone call between Yang and U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week, during which the two affirmed the importance of a constructive U. S.-China relationship.
It was the latest step by the world’s two largest economies to try to put relations back on an even keel after a rocky start following Trump’s election victory.
