China's Xi says the U.S. needs to accept Beijing's rise for bilateral relations to improve

Chinese President Xi Jinping told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday that Washington needs to look at China's development "in a positive light" in order for bilateral relations to improve.

Xi called this a "fundamental issue" that "must be put right, in order for the China-U.S. relationship to truly stabilize, improve and move forward," according to an official release.

The Chinese leader's comments come as the U.S. has imposed restrictions on Beijing's ability to access high-end tech and is moving close to banning social media app TikTok unless its Chinese parent ByteDance sells it.

Blinken met with Xi in Beijing on Friday, amid strained ties between the two countries as they battle for tech supremacy, with differences over the Middle East conflict and Russia-Ukraine war.

Speaking ahead of his closed-door meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Blinken said there is no substitute for "face-to-face diplomacy" and emphasized the need for the U.S. and China to avoid "miscalculations."

Both sides need to make sure "that we're as clear as possible about the areas where we have differences, at the very least to avoid misunderstandings, to avoid miscalculations," he told reporters.

In his remarks, Wang told Blinken that U.S.-China relations are "beginning to stabilize" with increased dialogue and cooperation.

"This is welcomed by our two peoples and the international community," he said, but warned that "negative factors" are rising and building, and that's causing "all kinds of disruptions."

"China's legitimate development rights have been unreasonably suppressed and our core interests are facing challenges," he said, telling Washington "not to step on China's red lines."

President Joe Biden met his