China and the US have stayed in communication on leader exchanges this year, Beijing said on Monday, hours after America’s top diplomat downplayed whether Donald Trump’s accusation of Chinese election meddling would derail high-level engagement.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian on Monday said the Chinese and American sides had “maintained communication regarding the arrangements for the heads of state’s interactions later this year”.
“Head-of-state diplomacy provides irreplaceable strategic guidance for US-China relations,” Lin said.
The statement came days after Trump delivered a prime-time address on Thursday in Washington in which he accused China of interfering in US elections, a move some worried might derail Chinese President Xi Jinping’s coming visit to the US.
On Sunday in Washington, before flying to the Philippines to attend a meeting of Asean’s foreign ministers, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed optimism when asked whether Trump’s remarks would affect Xi’s visit to the US.
