Mike Pompeo meets China's top diplomat in Hawaii

High-level meeting follows G7 statement calling on China to withdraw controversial Hong Kong security law

(FILES) In this file photo Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington,DC on June 10, 2020.  US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a vociferous critic of China, is meeting quietly June 17, 2020 in Hawaii with a top official from Beijing which is hoping to ease skyrocketing tensions. It is the first high-level meeting between the two powers since the coronavirus pandemic -- which President Donald Trump has sought to blame on China, increasingly his villain of choice ahead of the November US elections.Pompeo is meeting in Honolulu with Yang Jiechi, a veteran Communist Party official who reportedly requested the talks amid global tumult.
 / AFP / POOL / Andrew Harnik
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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, in Hawaii on Wednesday, the State Department said, amid a deterioration of relations between the world's two top economies.

The two have been in dispute over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and China's move to impose new security legislation on Hong Kong, which bans criticism of the Chinese government.

Tension has also risen also over China's neighbour North Korea, whose nuclear weapons programme have the US and China concerned.

Earlier on Wednesday, foreign ministers of the G7 countries, including Mr Pompeo, issued a statement calling on China to withdraw with the Hong Kong legislation.

The US secretary has been forceful in his criticism of Beijing and it was his first known contact with Mr Yang since they discussed the coronavirus by phone on April 15.'

They had not met face to face since last year.

(FILES) In this file photo taken on May 24, 2020, riot police gather on a road as protesters take part in a pro-democracy rally against a proposed new security law in Hong Kong. Group of Seven foreign ministers on June 17, 2020, urged China to reconsider its proposed security law for Hong Kong, in a statement in the midst of top-level US-China talks. "We strongly urge the Government of China to reconsider this decision," the G7 ministers said in a statement shortly before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to open talks with senior Chinese official Yang Jiechi in Hawaii. / AFP / Anthony WALLACE
Foreign ministers from the G7, including Mr Pompeo, urged China to reconsider its proposed security law for Hong Kong. AFP

Experts say US-China relations have reached their lowest point in years.

In mid-May, US President Donald Trump, who has pursued a deal to end a damaging trade war he launched with China, even suggested he could cut ties with Beijing.

Mr Trump and his administration have stepped up their speech against China in the run-up to the November US election.

But his former national security adviser, John Bolton, said on Wednesday that Mr Trump sought Chinese President Xi Jinping's help to win re-election during a closed-door meeting in June 2019.

Mr Bolton's accusations are part of a book that the US government on Tuesday sued to block him from publishing, saying it contained classified information and would compromise national security.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on excerpts published in major US newspapers on Wednesday.

China and the US did not outline an agenda for the Hawaii talks, but diplomats and other sources have said the meeting was requested by Beijing.

US trade representative Robert Lighthizer told a congressional hearing that Chinese officials had repeatedly affirmed their commitment to buy more US goods and services.

The commitment was part of a Phase 1 trade deal signed in January and about $10 billion (Dh36.73bn) in purchases has been so far recorded.

Mr Pompeo has said that China could have prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths from the coronavirus pandemic by being more transparent, and accused it of refusing to share information.

Mr Trump has initiated a process of eliminating special US treatment for Hong Kong to punish China for curbing freedom there.

But he has stopped short of immediately ending privileges that have helped the territory to remain a global financial centre.