BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday told top US diplomat Antony Blinken that the world's biggest economies should be "partners, not rivals" as the two sides pressed for headway on a range of concerns.
Blinken, in China for the second time in less than a year, pointed to improvements in the relationship but urged greater action from Beijing on areas including curbing support for Russia.
Meeting Blinken in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Xi said the two countries had "made some positive progress" since he met with US President Joe Biden in November.
"The two countries should be partners, not rivals," Xi said. "We hope the US can also take a positive view of China's development," Xi said. "When this fundamental problem is solved," he said, "relations can truly stabilise, get better and move forward".
Earlier China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned Blinken that US pressure could trigger a "downward spiral". Blinken described his talks with Wang at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse "extensive and constructive".
He announced that the two countries will in the coming weeks hold their first formal talks on managing artificial intelligence, a rising area of concern as the technology progresses rapidly.
But Blinken sounded on China's support for Russia's "brutal war of aggression" in Ukraine, saying that Beijing has helped Russia ramp up production of rockets, drones and tanks.
He said China has been helpful in the past, including in discouraging nuclear weapons use by Russia, and said that Wang promised to stay in touch on the Middle East, a key priority for Washington. Blinken said: "I think the relationships that China has can be positive in trying to calm tensions, to prevent escalation, avoid the spread of the conflict."
As he opened the meeting with Wang, Blinken said China and the US should manage the relationship "responsibly" and added: "I hope we make some progress on the issues our presidents agreed" on at the California summit.
The two countries should be as "clear as possible about the areas where we have differences -- at the very least to avoid misunderstandings, to avoid miscalculations", Blinken said.
"That really is a shared responsibility that we have not only for our own people, but for people around the world, given the impact that our relationship has," he said.
Biden, who recently spoke by telephone with Xi, faces a tough re-election fight in November against his predecessor Donald Trump, who has cast China as an enemy and vowed a hard line.
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