Sparks fly in the 1st direct, high-level U.S.-China talks of the Biden era

The top diplomats from the U.S. and China opened a new chapter in bilateral ties on Thursday in what proved to be one of the most undiplomatic episodes in recent memory. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan hosted their counterparts, top diplomat Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in Anchorage, Alaska for the first official, face-to-face government talks between the world's two biggest economies under the Biden administration.

Within minutes, the barbs began to fly.

"The United States' relationship with China will be competitive where it should be, collaborative where it can be and adversarial where it must be," Blinken said in his opening statement, adding that Washington harbored "deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyberattacks on the United States, and economic coercion toward our allies."