Yang sees Trump, meets with advisers

State Councilor Yang Jiechi's meetings with US President Donald Trump and top US security and diplomatic policymakers in Washington raised hopes for additional high-level contacts and better coordination on global issues, observers said.

China's top diplomat, in a two-day visit to the US, became on Monday the first senior Chinese official to meet Trump in the White House.

Observers said Yang's meetings in Washington reinforce the nations' shared hope to avoid misjudging each other, particularly on Asia-Pacific issues.

Yang arrived in Washington amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula, including a lingering China-US rift on the deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system in South Korea.

Yang and Trump both stated the need to strengthen high-level contacts and promote coordination on international and regional affairs, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

China is willing to "respect each other's core interests and major concerns" and achieve the healthy, stable development of ties, Yang told Trump.

White House press secretary Sen Spicer said the two sides "discussed shared interests in national security", without elaborating.

Yang also talked with Jared Kushner, White House senior adviser, Stephen Bannon, White House chief strategist, and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. He is scheduled to meet US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday morning local time.

No details of the topics touched on during Yang's meetings in Washington were mentioned in the releases and statements from either side.

Yang, in an article published by People's Daily on Tuesday, said "a confrontation between China and the US would be a disaster for the world".

Yang said thorny issues that could sabotage China-US ties include the Taiwan question, "Tibet independence", human rights and maritime issues.

China and the US should nurture a "shared friends circle" and aim for positive interactions, cooperation and win-win results in the Asia-Pacific region, Yang wrote.

Fan Jishe, a senior researcher of US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Yang had met with "key individuals of the US government" and such high-level contacts are a good channel for relaying China's concerns.

"Given the Obama administration's attempt to minimize China's 'friends circle' in the Asia-Pacific ... Beijing's message is clear: The common ground of China and the US in the Asia-Pacific is larger than their differences," Fan said.

The lack of news about specific topics discussed shows that the new US administration is still deliberating its China policies, Fan said.

Wang Dong, associate professor of international relations at Peking University, noted that Yang's meetings show "Beijing's proactive gesture to build contacts with the new team and help shape China-US ties".

Yang's talks are expected to have included messages to Washington that would help avoid miscalculation on critical issues, including the deployment of THAAD, Wang added.

Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said Yang's trip helps in drafting plans for dozens of ways to communicate with each other, including the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

Given the two sides' shared hope for reinforced high-level exchanges, Wu anticipated that President Xi Jinping and Trump are likely to meet later this year.

Yang's visit has symbolic significance in that it coincides with the 45th anniversary of the historic visit to China in 1972 by former US president Richard Nixon, which paved the way for the two countries to establish diplomatic relations in 1979.

The meetings were the fourth key foreign affairs contacts in February between Beijing and Washington, including a phone conversation between Xi and Trump, Yang's call with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's meeting with Tillerson in Germany.

Contact the writers at zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn