The United States has a strong and constructive bilateral relationship with China despite frictions between the world's two largest economies, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday.
"We have a strong relationship with China. It is a results-oriented relationship; it's a constructive bilateral relationship," said Heather Nauert, the State Department spokesperson, when asked by reporters to describe bilateral ties of the two major countries at a press briefing.
"I know that the president and the first lady and Secretary Tillerson had a very nice trip there," Nauert said.
Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump, accompanied by his wife Melania and State Secretary Rex Tillerson, made his first Asia tour, of which Beijing was an important leg.
During his China trip, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged in-depth views on key issues of common concern and reached important consensuses on multiple fronts, which bears great significance for maintaining sound and stable bilateral ties.
At the briefing, Nauert also mentioned the dialogue mechanism initiated by Xi and Trump during their first face-to-face meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, in April. The mechanism includes the diplomatic and security dialogue, the comprehensive economic dialogue, the law enforcement and cybersecurity dialogue, as well as the social and people-to-people dialogue.
"We had four of those dialogues that had taken place ... which is pretty significant," the spokesperson added.
Meanwhile, Heather acknowledged the existence of frictions between the two countries. "We've had areas of cooperation but also areas of tension, as we do with other countries," she said.
The United States will continue to work with the Chinese government to address the issues including trade, regional security and global challenges like the threat of terrorism, Nauert said.
