Blinken to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday

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By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday in New York City, the U.S. State Department said.

Ties between the world’s two biggest economies have been tense as they clash over U.S. export controls on advanced chip technology to China, trade tariffs, Taiwan, human rights and the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

The meeting between the two top diplomats will take place at 1330 ET (1730 GMT) on Friday, according to the State Department. The Chinese foreign minister is in the U.S. for the United Nations General Assembly session.

China this week urged the U.S. to “promptly” remove all additional tariffs on Chinese goods.

The United States has expressed concern over Chinese ties with Russia since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine while Beijing has repeatedly expressed worries over U.S. ties with Taiwan.

The U.S. is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier even though Washington does not formally recognize its government, maintaining official relations only with Beijing.

The challenges to the U.S. posed by China exceed those of the Cold War, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said this month.

President Joe Biden’s administration has been explicit that it is not seeking a cold war with China, but increasingly analysts and members of the U.S. Congress have said escalating global competition between the two superpowers resembled a new style of cold war.

The two sides have kept lines of communication open in recent months. The White House said last month a call was being planned between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Biden soon.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)