US' Blinken, China's Wang Yi meet at UN as Ukraine rejects Beijing's peace plan

The two countries are at odds over Ukraine, Gaza, chip export controls, trade tariffs, Taiwan, and human rights issues

NEW YORK:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday, where Ukraine's leader this week dismissed Beijing's formula to end Russia's war in his country.

They met at China’s UN mission in New York after the White House and the European Union said this week they were deeply concerned by a Reuters report that Russia has established a weapons program in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in the war.

Beijing, for its part, has repeatedly complained about US ties and arms supplies to Taiwan. It has also urged the US to remove tariffs on Chinese goods and denounced US proposals to ban Chinese software and hardware in vehicles on its roads due to national security concerns.

China and the US, the world's two biggest economies and superpowers, are at odds over a wide range of issues from the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, US export controls on advanced chip technology, trade tariffs, Taiwan and human rights.

Last week, US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said the challenges to the US posed by China exceeded those of the Cold War.

Relations plummeted last year after a Chinese spy balloon flew across the United States and was shot down, but the two sides have since sought to keep lines of communication open to prevent, the US says, competition spiraling into conflict.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing last month at the end of three days of talks to ease frictions ahead of November's US election.

The White House said then a call was being planned soon between Xi and US President Joe Biden.