South China Sea tensions force US and Beijing to talk more

Most of his meetings are at a ministerial level and audiences with President Xi are reserved for when senior US officials, such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken, visit.

Both sides have also vowed to work towards more “people-to-people” exchanges. This comes as the number of US students studying in China has fallen from around 15,000 in 2011 to 800.

Mr Xi hopes to open the door for 50,000 American students to come to China in the next five years. He said on a visit to San Francisco last November that it was the “ultimate wish of our two peoples for exchanges and cooperation”.

But Ambassador Burns accused parts of the Chinese government of not taking these warm words seriously: “Since the San Francisco summit, there have been 61 separate incidents when the security forces or a government ministry have prevented Chinese citizens from participating in public diplomacy programmes at this house, at our embassy or they have prevented people from travelling to the US to participate in joint trips – so it has been very difficult for us to bring people together.”

On the other side, Chinese students and academics have reported being unfairly targeted by US border officials. Beijing’s embassy in Washington lodged a formal protest and accused US authorities of “unwarrantedly” interrogating, harassing, cancelling the visas of and even deporting several students from China with valid travel permits upon their arrival in the US.

Washington has also placed a “level 3” travel advisory on China urging visitors to “reconsider” their travel. Mr Burns denied this alert was contradictory to a US plea to “bring people together,” but was rather a precaution.

“There are Americans imprisoned here who we believe are wrongfully detained, wrongfully prosecuted, I’ve been visiting these prisoners and we want them released.” He said several Americans had been subjected to “exit bans” by China and had their passports taken at the airport and could not leave.

China, in turn, has left the US off a list of countries that are exempt from visas for up to 15 days of travel – Australia is on the list after Beijing recently mended ties with Canberra.

That “people-to-people” contact – a relatively easy goal in an otherwise thorny relationship – is proving to be so difficult is perhaps a sign of the continuing lack of trust on both sides.

But the biggest fault line for now may well be the war in Ukraine.

The US seems to believe China could hold the key to halting Russia’s progress on the battlefield. And Ambassador Burns reiterated Washington’s message that Beijing’s support for Moscow’s invasion will not be tolerated.

“China is not neutral in this war,” he said. “China is showing its true colours. It’s supporting Russia, supporting Putin as he unleashes this barbaric war on Ukrainian civilians. We know what is being shipped by Chinese companies and we know the impact it is having on Russia’s ability to conduct this war.”

He said there were “tens of thousands” of Chinese companies supporting Moscow. “We have sanctioned a great number and we are prepared to do more if the government here does not pull back.”