Febuary 6, 2021

BEIJING (AP) — The top American and Chinese diplomats spoke Saturday in the first major exchange between the countries since President Joe Biden took office and touched on several critical issues that have strained their ties.

China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed in a phone call tension points in the bilateral relationship between the two, notably the situation in Xinjiang, home to the Uighur minority whose treatment is heavily criticized in the West, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The two statements reaffirmed the different positions of the countries, which have clashed on issues from trade to Beijing’s crackdown in Hong Kong to increased U.S. support for self-ruled democratic Taiwan. U.S.-China relations have fallen to new lows in the past few years, accelerated in part by former President Donald Trump starting a trade war with Beijing and blaming it for the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 2 million people globally.

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