Chinese foreign minister calls for Washington, Beijing to ‘overcome obstacles’ ahead of summit

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed a commitment to overcoming hurdles in the country’s relationship with the U.S. during a meeting with U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue in Beijing on Wednesday.

Their discussion comes ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s scheduled trip to the U.S. to meet with President Trump next month.

While Wang noted in the exchange that “improving and developing” ties between the two countries under current leadership is critical, he acknowledged the relations “still face various risks and challenges,” according to a readout from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

“Both sides should put into practice the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, focus on positive agendas, properly manage differences, eliminate interference and overcome obstacles in high-level exchanges between the two countries, and promote China-U.S. relations toward stability, health, and sustainability,” he added, according to the readout.

Perdue called his meetings with Wang and other Chinese officials “productive” in a social media post on Thursday, adding that the two nations were “working together to achieve a constructive relationship of strategic stability with fairness and reciprocity.”

The Chinese leader is scheduled to travel to the White House for a meeting with Trump on Sept. 24. The president last visited Beijing for bilateral meetings with Xi in May.

The upcoming summit in Washington comes amid tensions over the U.S.’s newly announced sanctions against Chinese entities with economic ties to Iran as part of the Trump administration’s “Economic D-Day” campaign against the Middle Eastern country.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian warned Tuesday that these newest penalties would “only further intensify tensions” between the two nations .

“Economic warfare and maximum pressure will not help resolve the issue,” Lin told reporters, according to CNN . “They will only further intensify tensions and conflicts, create spillover risks.”

Additionally, the meeting follows the Justice Department’s Wednesday announcement that it disrupted a multiyear Chinese hacking operation that targeted networks used by NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Energy, the U.S. Senate, the Department of Health and Human Services and other sensitive U.S. government agencies and contractors.

When asked by Fox News about whether the Chinese and U.S. leaders would discuss the hacking scheme during their upcoming summit, Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday that he would not “tell President Trump what he needs to talk to the leadership about in China.”

“This is something that we’ve talked about with our counterparts in China for many, many years,” Blanche continued. “And we know that it’s happening. And they know we know that it’s happening. And it has to stop.”