US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that he held a telephone conversation with incoming Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and discussed bilateral ties and the need to keep communication lines open.

"Spoke by phone this morning with incoming People's Republic of China Foreign Minister Qin Gang as he departs Washington for his new role. We discussed U.S.-PRC relationship and maintaining open lines of communication," Blinken tweeted.

Spoke by phone this morning with incoming People's Republic of China Foreign Minister Qin Gang as he departs Washington for his new role. We discussed U.S.-PRC relationship and maintaining open lines of communication.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) January 1, 2023

On December 30, Chinese state media reported that Beijing appointed Qin, the incumbent Chinese Ambassador to the United States, as the new Chinese Foreign Minister to replace Wang Yi, who served as the head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry since 2013.

Wang was appointed Director of the General Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, the highest foreign policy position of the Communist Party.

Earlier, Wang pledged to work to rectify the course in US-China relations but also vowed to fight all forms of hegemony.

In recent months, US-China relations were strained due to provocative visits by US lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan despite objections from Beijing. The disagreement resulted in increased Chinese military activity around the island.

However, in mid-December, a high-level US delegation met with China's Vice Foreign Minister in Langfang, a city near Beijing, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The US State Department said the purpose of the visit was to follow up on US President Joe Biden's recent talks with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, as well as to prepare for Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit there early this year.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing in Beijing that "the talks were frank, in-depth, and constructive."

It is noteworthy that on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia in mid-November, Biden and Xi engaged in blunt talks about Taiwan and DPRK, with the goal of preventing strained US-China relations from devolving into a new Cold War.