China-US Economic Working Group holds first meeting

Officials from the United States and China on Monday held a two-hour long virtual meeting to discuss domestic and global macroeconomic developments, the US Treasury Department said, calling the meeting "Productive and substantive". Senior officials from both sides have been meeting each other in recent months to lay the ground for an expected meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November. "Today, the United States and the People's Republic of China held the first meeting of the Economic Working Group, which serves as an ongoing channel to discuss and facilitate progress on bilateral economic policy matters," the Treasury Department said. The meeting was led by senior officials from the US Treasury Department and China's finance ministry. The economic meeting follows other high-level engagements between the two countries in recent months that have seen visits from US officials to China like Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June, Yellen in July and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in August. The trip will be the highest-level in-person engagement ahead of an expected meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November. Territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas would also be on the agenda during Wang's visit, the US officials said, adding that Washington was deeply concerned by China's "Destabilizing and dangerous actions" in the South China Sea.