Top US, China officials hold ‘candid’ talks

The top Chinese and US security advisers have held lengthy talks, with both sides describing them as "candid" following days of acrimonious exchanges over Taiwan and other flashpoint issues.

Readouts of the meeting in Luxembourg on Monday were toned down compared with last week, when China's defence minister warned his country would not "hesitate to start a war" over Taiwan, while the US defense secretary blasted Beijing's "provocative, destabilising" military activity.

But US security advisor Jake Sullivan and top diplomat Yang Jiechi did not indicate any compromise on their core points of disagreement, especially Taiwan.

Sullivan "underscored the importance of keeping open lines of communication to manage competition between our two countries", according to the White House.

Yang also agreed on maintaining dialogue, Xinhua said, but made clear that Beijing was not going to shift its red lines.

"For some time... the US side has been insisting on further containing and suppressing China in an all-round way," he said, according to Xinhua. But "China firmly opposes using competition to define bilateral ties."

The Xinhua readout said Yang "also stated China's solemn position on issues concerning Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet, the South China Sea, as well as human rights and religion".