The United States wants to have high-level engagement with China, a senior U.S. State Department official said Wednesday.[Special coverage]
"I think we always want to have high-level engagement in the U.S.-China relationship. It's a very important relationship, and it's really broad and wide-ranging, and so we want to be able to establish that kind of good relationship," said Susan Thornton, acting Assistant Secretary of State, in a briefing.
Speaking on the eve of the first meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Thornton said the United States will be looking to make the meeting "very constructive."
"This is a chance for the two leaders to get to know one another. We want to have them establish a good working relationship so that they can, in times of both opportunity and crisis, reach out to one another and have a good rapport," she added.
Matt Pottinger, senior director for Asia at the National Security Council, said the first meeting between Xi and Trump will cover bilateral issues, regional issues and a variety of areas of cooperation.
