US-China relations: Washington blamed for rising tensions in Sherman meeting

China blamed Washington for treating it as an enemy, and hawkish voices in the US for escalating tensions between the two powers, in the first face-to-face meeting between their senior officials in months.

Chinese foreign vice-minister Xie Feng told US deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman on Monday morning that US-China relations had reached a “stalemate” and faced “serious consequences”, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.