Beijing and Washington should "manage and control their differences on the basis on mutual respect" and push for greater ties, State Councilor Yang Jiechi said in a phone conversation with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday.

In the conversation, they referred to the first official meeting between President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump on April 6 and 7 in Florida.

Yang said the meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate set a constructive tone and charted a course for the development of China-US ties. He said the two leaders had a good conversation by phone afterward.