Photo/Illutration U.S. and Chinese flags are seen in this illustration taken on Jan. 30, 2023. (REUTERS)

BEIJING/ WASHINGTON--A senior U.S. diplomat held candid and productive talks on Monday with Chinese officials, the State Department said, despite some criticism that his visit to China coincided with the anniversary of Beijing's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The visit to Beijing by Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, followed China's snub last week of U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who had sought a formal meeting with his Chinese counterpart.

Kritenbrink, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns and National Security Council official Sarah Beran met with Chinese foreign ministry officials Ma Zhaoxu and Yang Tao, the State Department said in a statement.

"The two sides had candid and productive discussions as part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and build on recent high-level diplomacy between the two countries," the statement said, adding that they exchanged views on the bilateral relationship, cross-Strait issues and other matters.

"U.S. officials made clear that the United States would compete vigorously and stand up for U.S. interests and values," it said.

Kritenbrink's arrival on June 4 coincided with the 34th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown by Chinese troops on demonstrators in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square that rights groups say killed hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters.

Zhou Fengsuo, an exiled former Tiananmen student leader who is now an American citizen, told Reuters he was "outraged" and saw the timing of the visit as a "betrayal."

"This definitely threw salt in our wounds. It could only be a strategic move by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) to choose such a date to meet, and the State Department did so without any mention of Tiananmen," Zhou said.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby defended the timing of the meeting, saying critics "are just making a whole heck of a lot out of nothing."

"This was a long-planned trip, and this is the way the schedules worked out," Kirby told a White House briefing on Monday.

President Joe Biden's administration has pushed to increase engagement with China as ties between the world's two largest economies have deteriorated over issues ranging from democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own, to military activity in the South China Sea.

Critics have questioned U.S. overtures to China, arguing that past decades of engagement have failed to change Beijing's behavior.

At a security summit in Singapore over the weekend, Austin said Beijing's reluctance to talk undermined efforts to maintain peace in the region.

China's defense minister, Li Shangfu, who has been under U.S. sanctions since 2018 over the purchase of combat aircraft and equipment from Russia, had declined an invitation to meet Austin at the summit.

Chinese state-backed newspaper the Global Times also criticized Kritenbrink's visit, writing late on Sunday that it was motivated more by Washington's goal to portray itself as the side seeking communication.

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