A U.S. official visited China last week, the State Department said Tuesday, nearly two months after Washington abruptly canceled a visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Rick Waters, who heads a new State Department body called China House, which oversees U.S. policy toward China, visited Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.
The State Department did not disclose the topics Waters discussed or the outcome of the talks, but said he had met with counterparts and U.S. staff based in China.
Blinken was due to visit Beijing in early February, but canceled the visit after the United States announced the detection of a Chinese balloon flying in its airspace, which it said was for espionage purposes.
Recently, tensions between the world's two largest economies have escalated, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has publicly accused the US of seeking to "contain, encircle, and suppress China."