WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with incoming Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang over the phone on Sunday, Blinken said on Twitter, after China last week appointed its ambassador to america to be its recent foreign minister.
Blinken said he discussed the U.S.-China relationship and maintaining open lines of communication in his phone call with Qin.
China on Friday appointed Qin, its ambassador to america and a trusted aide of President Xi Jinping, to be its recent foreign minister, as Beijing and Washington seek to stabilize rocky relations.
Qin, 56, replaces Wang Yi, who had been foreign minister for the past decade. Wang, 69, was promoted to the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party in October and is predicted to play an even bigger role in Chinese foreign policy.
Though Qin sounded optimistic about U.S.-China relations during his relatively temporary, 17-month stint as ambassador in Washington – his predecessor had held the post for eight years – his tenure nonetheless coincided with deteriorating ties between the 2 superpowers.
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Wang’s stint as foreign minister saw a pointy rise in tensions between Beijing and Washington on a big selection of issues starting from trade to Taiwan.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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