The United States and China levelled sharp rebukes of each others' policies in the first high-level, in-person talks of the Biden administration on Thursday, with deeply strained relations of the two global rivals on rare public display during the meeting's opening session in Alaska. https://str.sg/J95k

Sparring in a highly unusual extended back-and-forth in front of cameras, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan opened their meeting with China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi and State Councilor Wang Yi in Anchorage, fresh off of Mr Blinken's visits to allies Japan and South Korea.

"We will... 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," Mr Blinken said in blunt public remarks at the top of the first meeting.

"Each of these actions threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability," he said.

Mr Yang responded with a 15-minute speech in Chinese while the US side awaited translation, lashing out about what he said was the United States' struggling democracy, poor treatment of minorities and criticising its foreign and trade policies.

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VIDEO: REUTERS