Rex Tillerson, White House Secretary of State, recently concluded a trip to Beijing. He said that President Donald Trump will be looking forward to meeting the Chinese president in the future.
President Xi said that he was pleased with the progress of the meetings that were held between Tillerson and various ministers in the past week. Xi is looking forward to having more constructive work to tighten China-U.S. ties.
Tillerson is the first top White House official to meet with China in the Trump administration.
Xi revealed that he and Trump have been communicating regularly through phone conversations and messages, and that the American president has a "very high value on the communications that have already occurred."
He added, "And he looks forward to enhancing that understanding in the opportunity for a visit in the future."
State Department spokesperson Mark Toner confirmed that the U.S. President will be entertaining Xi in his Florida residence soon.
Before arriving in China, Tillerson went on a tour of Japan and South Korea. Tensions in the Korean peninsula are increasing as Pyongyang announced that they ran a test of a high-thrust rocket engine that is part of an inter-continental ballistic missile.
This missile can reach U.S. shores. Trump responded to this by posting on Twitter: "North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been 'playing' the United States for years. China has done little to help!"
Tillerson then announced that the U.S. is open to conducting a pre-emptive strike on North Korea. Both superpowers have not retaliated on North Korea's test launch.
President Xi was careful in handling the sensitivity of the regional tensions. He said, "We should properly handle and manage sensitive issues to promote the healthy and stable development of the Sino-U.S. relationship."
The U.S. state department then said that both officials "agreed there are opportunities for greater cooperation between China and the United States, but acknowledged there are and will be in the future, differences between the two countries."