Charles Oduor 
Relations between the two superpowers are at their most strained for years. The ill-tempered talks involved Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on the US side, facing off with China’s most senior foreign policy official, Yang Jiechi, and foreign minister Wang Yi.
The exchange, which took place in front of the world’s media, went on for more than an hour. It came at the start of three sessions, which was due today morning.
It is the first high-level meeting between the US and China since last June – during the administration of the previous US President, Donald Trump.
The US pledged to raise contentious issues such as Beijing’s treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.
However, a US official said the subsequent talks behind closed doors had been “substantive, serious and direct” and ran over the planned two hours.
In a blunt opening statement before the talks in private, Mr Blinken said the US would “discuss our deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber-attacks on the United States, economic coercion of our allies”.
Political analyst Barbara Plett-Usher says the Biden team had been blunt in public criticism of Beijing. So the Chinese knew what to expect and seemed to have come prepared to hit back.
By Laura Mmosi
