At the outset of two days of negotiations with Chinese officials, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing.
It's been nearly five years since a diplomatic mission from the United States last visited China.
US officials have stated that the primary objective of the talks is to restore calm to the increasingly heated relationship between the two parties.
It's been over five months since the last Blinken visit, which was canceled after a Chinese surveillance balloon was spotted flying in American territory.
Diaoyutai State Guest House is a beautiful house where Mr. Qin welcomed Mr. Blinken on Sunday.
The two leaders shook hands in front of their flags and then sat down at long tables with their delegates to begin talks.
The formality of the greeting reflected the increasingly distant relationship between the two superpowers in recent years.
Important US-Chinese talks center on three important issues
Both the United States and China have made it clear that they do not expect any substantial breakthrough from the trip.
The US hopes that this would help restore communication channels at the highest levels and help stabilize relations that have been tense since the balloon incident.
China has held military drills close to Taiwan, which the Chinese government considers to be an inseparable part of China. There are strong diplomatic links between the United States and Taiwan's democratically elected government.
The schedule is packed with events like talks with Qin Gang and Wang Yi, a top Chinese diplomat.
The Americans anticipate discussing a wide range of issues, from the war in Ukraine and trade disputes over advanced computer technologies to the fentanyl opioid epidemic in the United States and China's human rights record.
The Chinese government has taken Mr. Blinken's visit with indifference, raising doubts about the sincerity of the United States' attempts to improve relations.
Whether or not he will get to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping is unclear.
Mr. Blinken's visit to China marks the highest-level state visit by a United States official since Vice President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.
"If we want to make sure, as we do, that the competition that we have with China doesn't veer into conflict, the place you start is with communicating," Mr. Blinken told reporters on Friday.
Later, he expressed his desire to meet with President Xi within the coming months.
Even though President Biden and Xi Jinping met in Bali in November, high-level communication between the two leaders has been scarce ever since the balloon incident.