Wang Yi Holds "candid" Talks With Blinken In Bali

Foreign Minister Wang Yi held in-depth and candid talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Bali on Saturday, officials from both sides said.

The foreign ministry in Beijing said the two sides exchanged views on topics including the Ukraine crisis, the Korean peninsula and interactions between China and the United States in the Asia-Pacific region.

Wang told Blinken that the direction of US-China relations was in danger of being further led "astray" due to a problem with the United States' perception of China, the ministry said in a statement.

"Many people believe that the United States is suffering from an increasingly serious bout of 'Sinophobia'," Wang was quoted as saying.

Wang also said Washington should cancel additional tariffs imposed on China as soon as possible and cease unilateral sanctions on Chinese companies.

US officials had said before the talks that the meeting was aimed at keeping the difficult Sino-US relationship stable and preventing it from veering inadvertently into conflict.

"Moving forward, the United States wants our channels of communication with Beijing to continue to remain open," Blinken said. (RTHK/Reuters)