China and the United States have stayed in contact about exchanges between their leaders this year, Beijing said just hours after America’s top diplomat downplayed the possibility that allegations of Chinese meddling in US elections would derail high-level engagement.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Monday that the Chinese and American sides had “maintained communication regarding the arrangements for the heads of states’ interactions later this year”.
“Head-of-state diplomacy provides irreplaceable strategic guidance for US-China relations,” Lin said.
The statement followed US Donald Trump’s prime-time address in Washington on Thursday in which he accused China of interfering in US elections, a move some said might undermine plans for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the US.
After the speech, China’s foreign ministry dismissed Trump’s allegations as “completely groundless”.