The United States and China levelled sharp rebukes of each others' policies in the first high-level, in-person talks of the Biden administration on Thursday, with deeply strained relations of the two global rivals on rare public display during the meeting's opening session in Alaska.

The United States, which quickly accused China of "grandstanding" and violating the meeting's protocol, had been looking for a change in behaviour from China, itself having expressed earlier this year a hope to reset sour relations.

Sparring in a highly unusual extended back-and-forth in front of cameras, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan opened their meeting with China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi and State Councilor Wang Yi in Anchorage, fresh off of Blinken's visits to allies Japan and South Korea.