Easing tensions, US, China to hold top-level security talks

The United States and China will hold top-level security talks on Friday, the State Department announced, in a sign of easing tensions after months of escalation over trade and regional disputes.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will host senior Chinese officials in Washington for the second US-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue, following a meeting in June 2017.

The announcement of talks with senior Communist Party foreign affairs official Yang Jiechi and General Wei Fenghe came on the eve of US congressional elections, in which President Donald Trump has cast China as a villain set on bringing him down.

In early October, a US defense official said that a planned visit by Mattis to China had been canceled because Beijing declined to make Wei available.

But addressing a Middle East security conference last week, Mattis said that Wei would shortly travel to Washington, adding that "strategic competition does not imply hostility."
But Trump sounded a more conciliatory note last week, heralding "very good" talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and later declaring that he expected their trade conflict to end with "a very good deal."