China has warned the US that a “strategic miscalculation” in its relations with Beijing had stoked bilateral tensions that risked derailing high-level talks aimed at combating the global threat of climate change.

John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, the climate envoys for the world’s two largest economies, are meeting in Tianjin, north-eastern China, with the Biden administration calling for Xi Jinping’s government to boost its efforts towards cutting carbon emissions.

The meetings between the biggest polluters take place against a backdrop of increasing strains between the US and China over Beijing’s crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang and the South China Sea, as well as technology and the origins of the coronavirus.