WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top White House official, Jon Finer, met on Wednesday with a senior Chinese official and the two discussed tensions over Taiwan and the South China Sea, the White House said.
Finer, who is deputy national security adviser, met Liu Jianchao, head of the International Liaison Department of China’s Communist Party, as part of efforts to maintain open lines of communications as directed by U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping at their California summit last November.
The meeting took place in Washington and the two officials had “candid and constructive discussions.”
They discussed a host of global hotspots, including the Middle East and Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“Mr. Finer stressed the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea,” the White House said.
They reaffirmed support for continued high-level diplomacy and interactions between the United States and China, the White House said.
In separate talks, senior U.S. and Chinese officials held a virtual meeting on Wednesday and discussed cooperating on law enforcement issues including the illicit flow of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, the U.S. Department Of Homeland Security said.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong participated in the meeting, along with other senior officials, the department said in a statement.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sandra Maler)
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