Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly at China's mission, a US official said, with the two making no public remarks.
Since the two last met in July at a regional conference in Laos, China has pleased the United States by releasing an American pastor imprisoned for years, although other Americans are detained.
China during a summit in November 2023 with President Joe Biden agreed to key US demands of restoring military communication and taking action against producers of ingredients in fentanyl, the painkiller behind an overdose epidemic in the United States.
But a wide range of disagreements remain, with China livid over sweeping US sanctions on technology exports, which Washington says are needed for national security reasons.
The United States has also warned China over high tensions at sea with its ally the Philippines.
Another US ally, Japan, sailed a warship Thursday through the Taiwan Strait for the first time, infuriating China which claims self-governing democracy Taiwan as its own.
The latest meeting comes ahead of the November 5 election in which Republican Donald Trump has vowed to take a harder line on China.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running against Trump, have said that they seek dialogue to avoid conflict between the two powers, although the administration has also taken a hard line.
Blinken's deputy, Kurt Campbell, recently told a congressional hearing that China posed a broader challenge to the United States than the Soviet Union did during the Cold War.
Biden is widely expected to meet again with Chinese President Xi Jinping after the US election when the two attend summits in Brazil and Peru, although neither side has confirmed a meeting.
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