FACTBOX-Top US-China exchanges since Biden took office

The balloon incident had triggered a diplomatic crisis and caused Blinken to suspend a planned trip to Beijing earlier that month. COMMERCE OFFICIALS SWAP COMPLAINTS IN WASHINGTON – May 25, 2023 U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao aired complaints about each others' investment and export policies in face-to-face talks in Washington. DEFENSE CHIEFS SHAKE HANDS – June 2, 2023 Austin shook hands with China's then-Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu on the sidelines of a security summit in Singapore, but the two did not have a "substantive exchange," according to the Pentagon.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold talks in the San Francisco Bay area next week as they seek to stabilize tense relations, meeting in person for just the second time in nearly three years.

The summit follows a six-month U.S. push to engage its geopolitical rival, contact the Biden administration argues is vital to steering the two countries away from conflict. Below is a list of some of the other high-level U.S.-China exchanges that have shaped relations since Biden took office in January 2021.

BIDEN-XI PHONE CALL – Feb. 10, 2021 Biden and Xi held their first phone call as leaders and appeared at odds on issues ranging from trade to human rights, even as Xi warned that confrontation would be a "disaster" for both nations.

FIRST HIGH-LEVEL MEETING – March 18, 2021 The first U.S. and China high-level face-to-face meeting under Biden's administration was in Anchorage, Alaska. It got off to a fiery start with both sides rebuking each others' policies in a rare public display that underscored tensions.

The talks were led on the U.S. side by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and on the Chinese side by senior diplomats Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi. FIRST TRADE TALKS – May 26, 2021

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and China's then-Vice Premier Liu He held talks virtually, the first such high level trade talks between the world's two biggest economies since Biden took office. SENIOR U.S. DIPLOMAT VISITS CHINA – July 26, 2021

Then-Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman held talks in Tianjin, China, with State Councillor Wang Yi and senior Chinese official Xie Feng, who is now China's ambassador to the U.S. China issued two lists of demands to Sherman, including a tally of "U.S. wrongdoings that must stop" to improve relations.

Those included the U.S. revoking its extradition request to Canada for Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou. Two months later, Meng flew home to China after reaching an agreement with U.S. prosecutors to end the bank fraud case against her, relieving a major point of tension in relations. BIDEN AND XI HOLD VIDEO MEETING – Nov. 15, 2021

Biden and Xi spoke via video link for the first time in talks lasting more than three hours, which covered a wide range of topics including Taiwan, North Korea and trade. SULLIVAN-YANG JIECHI TALKS IN ROME – March 14, 2022

Weeks after China's close partner Russia invaded Ukraine, Sullivan held a seven-hour meeting with Yang Jiechi to warn Beijing not to aid Moscow's war effort. Washington maintains that China has not materially aided Russia in the conflict, but U.S. authorities have sanctioned numerous individual Chinese companies for alleged military support.

DEFENSE CHIEFS HOLD FIRST TALKS – April 20, 2022 U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held a call with China's then-defence minister Wei Fenghe, the first talks between the two officials since Biden took office.

BLINKEN AND WANG YI HOLD TALKS IN NEW YORK – Sept. 23, 2022 Taiwan was the focus of the 90-minute talks between Blinken and Wang on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

The talks came more than a month after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, the democratic island China claims as its own, triggering a furious reaction from Beijing, which largely severed military-to-military communication with Washington. BIDEN AND XI MEET IN BALI – Nov. 14, 2022

Biden and Xi held their long-awaited first face-to-face talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. During the three-and-a-half hour meeting the pair covered sensitive topics, including Taiwan, but signaled they sought to enhance senior official communications. BLINKEN AND WANG YI HOLD TENSE MUNICH TALKS – Feb. 19, 2023

Blinken and Wang met at an undisclosed location on the sidelines of a global security conference in Munich following the U.S. downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over U.S. soil. The balloon incident had triggered a diplomatic crisis and caused Blinken to suspend a planned trip to Beijing earlier that month.

COMMERCE OFFICIALS SWAP COMPLAINTS IN WASHINGTON – May 25, 2023 U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao aired complaints about each others' investment and export policies in face-to-face talks in Washington.

DEFENSE CHIEFS SHAKE HANDS – June 2, 2023 Austin shook hands with China's then-Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu on the sidelines of a security summit in Singapore, but the two did not have a "substantive exchange," according to the Pentagon. The handshake came after China previously rejected a proposal from the U.S. for Austin and Li to hold formal talks at the Shangri-La Dialogue.

U.S. KICKS OFF SERIES OF SENIOR VISITS TO CHINA - May – Sept. 2023 The Biden administration, seeking to repair ties brought to new depths by the balloon incident, began a series of largely unreciprocated visits by senior officials to China, beginning with a quiet trip by CIA Director William Burns in May.

Blinken went to China in early June and was followed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Biden's climate envoy John Kerry in July, and Raimondo in August. Yellen and Raimondo set up new commercial, economic and financial workings groups with Chinese counterparts, moves critics in Washington argued resembled a return to past failed dialogue mechanisms with Beijing.

WANG YI VISITS WASHINGTON – Oct. 27, 2023 The U.S. and China agreed to work toward the Biden-Xi meeting at APEC after Wang Yi met Biden on a three-day visit to Washington, the first by a Chinese foreign minister since 2018.

U.S. ATTENDS CHINA'S ANNUAL DEFENSE FORUM – Oct. 29, 2023 The Pentagon accepted China's invitation to attend its annual Xiangshan security forum in October, one of several incremental signs of slowly warming ties between the two countries' militaries.

Biden administration officials have expressed some optimism that defense communications will improve.