When Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce, left China this week, it marked the tip of a three-month diplomatic blitz by the Biden administration to attempt to stabilize ties with Beijing and arrest a free fall within the relationship that had raised issues in regards to the threat of battle.

President Biden had bet that high-level dialogue may assist handle an escalating rivalry over commerce, expertise and the standing of Taiwan. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken was the primary to make the journey to the Chinese capital in June, adopted by Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and the presidential local weather envoy, John Kerry, in July.

After logging all these miles, the query now could be whether or not China will reciprocate by sending senior Chinese ministers to Washington. The United States has publicly invited China’s overseas minister, Wang Yi, however he has but to just accept. The final senior Chinese official to journey to Washington was China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, who visited in late May.

China has a lot to achieve from dispatching officers to the United States. It would sign to the world it was making an effort to ease tensions with Washington, notably at a time when China must bolster confidence in its shaky financial system. A go to may additionally assist lay the groundwork for a possible, extremely anticipated assembly between President Biden and China’s high chief, Xi Jinping, at a discussion board in San Francisco in November.

Beijing, nonetheless, has been noncommittal. Its strategy may mirror inside disarray following the unexplained, abrupt dismissal of its former overseas minister, Qin Gang, in July. Or it could possibly be a hardball tactic aimed toward conveying Mr. Xi’s displeasure over what he regards as an effort by the United States to include China’s rise.

It may additionally recommend that Beijing sees no upside in touring for talks, given how unlikely it’s that the Biden administration will ease up on its robust insurance policies.

“Visits to the U.S. carry political risk, particularly if they do not produce the results that China seeks,” mentioned Danny Russel, a vice chairman of the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former U.S. assistant secretary of state.

Those dangers embrace exposing envoys to criticism and protests. China locations nice significance on the optics of its official visits abroad. Since lifting “zero Covid” final 12 months, Mr. Xi has traveled solely to international locations the place he has been assured a pleasant welcome like Saudi Arabia, Russia, and most just lately, South Africa for the summit of the BRICS group of rising nations.

Mr. Xi emerged from the assembly in Johannesburg seemingly triumphant, having succeeded in persuading the 4 different members — Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa — to develop the grouping. That determination allowed Mr. Xi to burnish his picture again house as a world statesman regardless of China’s weakened standing with the West over its assist for Russia.

He Lifeng, a vice premier overseeing financial coverage, in the meantime, went to Pakistan in July. Mr. Wang, the overseas minister, traveled to Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore along with Johannesburg in August.

The overseas ministry has mentioned solely that China and the United States had been “in touch” about exchanges. Mr. Wang was invited a month in the past to go to Washington, a visit that has been seen as essential for the planning of a potential go to by Mr. Xi to San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, and a gathering with Mr. Biden.

China could not intend to schedule any U.S. visits. Holding conferences solely in Beijing may give Mr. Xi’s authorities extra management over the talks, to push again in opposition to the United States on points like commerce and funding restrictions.

“Making the ‘barbarians’ come to Beijing as supplicants is a tried and true Chinese power play tactic,” Mr. Russel mentioned.

That issues to the Chinese as a result of the Biden administration, which has described China as “America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge,” has remained unrelenting on the problems that frustrate the Chinese management essentially the most.

Topping that listing is Washington’s continued assist for Taiwan, a self-governed island claimed by Beijing. China perceives exchanges between U.S. and Taiwanese officers, arms gross sales and joint statements with allies about preserving peace in Taiwan as tantamount to supporting the island’s independence.

Additionally, China desires Washington to carry restrictions on entry to superior U.S. chip expertise, and to cease deepening safety ties with allies round Asia — strikes Mr. Xi has mentioned quantities to “all-around containment, encirclement and suppression of China.”

China has additionally denounced a summit Mr. Biden held at Camp David with the leaders of Japan and South Korea to spice up safety cooperation, calling it “a deliberate attempt to sow discord between China and our neighbors.”

“The Camp David meeting of the three leaders is having a very negative impact on China’s perception of the three powers,” mentioned Zheng Yongnian, an influential political scientist on the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. “It is seen as dividing Asia, and leading Asia into another Cold War.”

Beijing is also withholding visits to the U.S. to precise its unhappiness over the reported barring of Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed chief govt, John Lee, from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. China’s Foreign Ministry demanded that Mr. Lee be invited, and that the United States carry sanctions it imposed on him for implementing a nationwide safety regulation that drastically restricted freedoms within the metropolis.

“The U.S. wants President Xi to attend APEC, but then they take such an action with the Hong Kong chief executive,” mentioned Wu Xinbo, dean of worldwide research at Fudan University in Shanghai. “The policy is contradictory.”

China’s greatest qualm about holding talks with the United States in current months was that engagement would quantity to nothing if it was not backed by motion. In his conferences with Ms. Raimondo on Tuesday, Chinese Premier Li Qiang known as on the United States to “meet China halfway” and “take more practical and beneficial actions.”

Ms. Raimondo used her meeting to guarantee Beijing that the United States didn’t need to sever commerce ties, and likewise to share issues by American companies that China was changing into “uninvestable” as a result of the atmosphere appeared fraught with dangers. She cited authorities raids on companies, a brand new counterespionage regulation and the imposing of exorbitant fines with out rationalization.

Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador in Beijing, mentioned in an interview on Wednesday that the visits to China by U.S. officers enabled Washington to ship “direct and often tough messages to senior Chinese leaders on issues critical to our national security.”

The entry to senior management was a far cry from earlier within the 12 months when a Chinese surveillance balloon episode set off a tense diplomatic deadlock.

Still, the 2 sides stay far aside on points like military-to-military communication, which have been frozen by Beijing since Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the House of Representatives, visited Taiwan final August.

“U.S. efforts shouldn’t be measured by how many reciprocal visits China makes, but rather whether or not its engagements with Beijing communicate hard truths to Beijing while also attempting to find paths to avoiding conflict,” mentioned Jude Blanchette, who holds the Freeman Chair in China Studies on the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“If Xi and his deputies only feel comfortable discussing these matters within the confines of Communist Party property,” he added, “then that says more about them than it does the White House.”