US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on August 3 that Washington has not yet received a response to Wang Yi's invitation to visit the US.

“We haven’t heard back yet, but we just made the invitation,” Mr. Blinken told reporters at the United Nations headquarters in New York after he chaired a meeting on global food security.

“I hope we will have an opportunity to meet and continue the important conversations that I and a number of my colleagues in the Cabinet had in Beijing,” Mr. Blinken shared.

In late July, Mr. Wang was reappointed to the position of China's foreign minister, a position he previously held from 2013 to December 2022. Mr. Wang is also director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on August 2 that the US had invited Mr. Wang to Washington the day before, during a meeting between Mr. Daniel Kritenbrink, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Mr. Yang Tao, Director of the Department of North America and Oceania at the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

US President Joe Biden has sent his top aides to Beijing in recent months to stabilize bilateral relations that have sunk to their lowest point since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1979.

In mid-June, Mr. Blinken became the first US secretary of state to visit China in five years. He met with Mr. Qin Gang, who had just been removed as foreign minister, as well as President Xi Jinping. Both sides described the talks as “candid and constructive.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is the next US administration official to visit Beijing, where she will hold hours-long meetings with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Vice Premier He Lifeng.

Following Ms Yellen on her trip was Biden's climate envoy, John Kerry. He met with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua.

After a four-day trip that included closed-door talks, Mr. Kerry said he had “productive discussions.” Although no breakthroughs on climate cooperation were made, the two sides agreed to hold regular meetings.

Amid rising tensions over Biden’s export controls on certain semiconductor technologies aimed at hindering China’s technological advancement, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is also expected to travel to Beijing later this month.

“It would be helpful to continue these conversations,” Secretary Blinken said on August 3. Blinken also noted that he had spoken with Wang in July on the sidelines of an ASEAN meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, and expressed his desire to meet with him again in the United States .

Nguyen Tuyet (According to Anadolu Agency, SCMP)