US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Sunday, Blinken said on Twitter, after China appointed its ambassador to the United States last week. as its new foreign minister.
Blinken said he discussed the US-China relationship and maintaining open lines of communication in his phone call with Qin.
China named Qin, its ambassador to the United States and a trusted adviser to President Xi Jinping, as its new foreign minister on Friday, as Beijing and Washington sought to stabilize shaky relations.
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Qin, 56, replaces Wang Yi, who had been foreign minister for the past decade. Wang, 69, was promoted to the Chinese Communist Party’s politburo in October and is expected to play a greater role in Chinese foreign policy.
Although Qin was upbeat about US-China relations during his relatively short 17-month stint as ambassador to Washington (his predecessor held the post for eight years), his tenure coincided with deteriorating ties between the two superpowers.
Wang’s term as foreign minister saw a sharp rise in tensions between Beijing and Washington on a wide range of issues from trade to Taiwan.
