WASHINGTON: The US government is sending its first high-level delegation to China since a pledge made last month by Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden to repair frayed relations.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink will join National Security Council Senior Director for China and Taiwan Laura Rosenberger on the December 11-14 trip.

The two will visit China, South Korea and Japan.

In China, Kritenbrink will follow up on Biden’s meeting in Bali last month with Xi in which the pair pledged “to continue responsibly managing the competition between our two countries and to explore potential areas of cooperation”, the State Department said.

Kritenbrink will also prepare for Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to China in early 2023, the first visit by the top US diplomat in four years, it added.

The United States and China are the two largest economies in the world, spend more than any other nations on their militaries and are locked in fierce strategic competition.

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In their Bali meeting, the two leaders discussed contentious issues, including Taiwan’s future, US restrictions on Chinese high-tech imports and China’s moves to expand its influence around the world.

Biden left his meeting with Xi proclaiming that there need not be a new Cold War, while Xi told Biden the two countries “share more, not less, common interests”.