Top US, Chinese diplomats clash at start of first talks of Biden presidency

US President Joe Biden

* US, Chinese officials engage in rare sparring in public * US says China threatens rule-based order, global stability * China says US abuses national security * Talks scheduled for Thursday, Friday The first high-level US-China talks of the Biden administration got off to a fiery start on Thursday, with both sides levelling sharp rebukes of the others' policies in a rare display that underscored the level of bilateral tension. The run-up to the meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, which followed visits by US officials to allies Japan and South Korea, was marked by a flurry of moves by Washington that showed it was taking a tough stance, and blunt talk from Beijing. ‘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,’ US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Chinese counterparts in highly unusual extended back-and-forth in front of cameras.