A meeting of top US and Chinese diplomats got off to a frosty start on Monday, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang airing grievances amid worsening bilateral relations.
"Recently, as the US side has been constantly escalating trade friction toward China, it has also adopted a series of actions on the Taiwan issue that harm China's rights, and has made groundless criticism of China's domestic and foreign policies," Wang said at a joint appearance with Pompeo.
"We believe this has been a direct attack on our mutual trust, and has cast a shadow on China-US relations," Wang said.
"We demand that the US side stop this kind of mistaken action," he said.
Pompeo, who was briefing Wang following his visit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said: "The issues that you characterised we have a fundamental disagreement."
"We have great concerns about the actions that China has taken, and I look forward to having the opportunity to discuss each of those today because this is an incredibly important relationship."
While the exchange included typical diplomatic pleasantries, and the two emphasised the need for cooperation, the remarks in front of journalists at the start of their meeting at Beijing's Diaoyutai Guest House were unusually pointed for such events.
The two openly disagreed over which side had called off a bilateral security dialogue that had been due to take place in Beijing this month.
Last week, US Vice President Mike Pence intensified the US pressure campaign against Beijing, going beyond the trade war by accusing China of both "malign" efforts to undermine President Donald Trump ahead of next month's congressional elections and of reckless military actions in the South China Sea.
US, China Resume Nuclear Talks After 5 Years Amid Taiwan Conflict US Lawmaker Pledges Support For Taiwan Against Chinese Aggression Biden Imposes Heavy Import Tariffs On Chinese Imports Windows Computers Lead To 'Blue Screen Of Death' Due To CrowdStrike Error Massive Worldwide Microsoft Outage: Flights, Markets, Stock Exchange Down Microsoft 'Blue Screen Of Death' Outage: Full List Of Services Hit In India PM Modi Hails Lockheed Martin's Make In India, Make For World Drive Study Abroad: Top 10 Management Universities In United Kingdom "Reason Identified, Updates Released": India On Massive Microsoft Outage Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.