The meeting comes as Washington and Beijing remain locked in disputes on issues ranging from trade and fentanyl to Taiwan and cutting-edge technology.

Rubio and Wang are in Kuala Lumpur for a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which Japan, South Korea and Australia are also attending.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing have soared since US President Donald Trump took office in January, with both countries engaging in a tariff war that sent duties on each other's exports sky-high.

At one point the United States hit China with additional levies of 145 percent on its goods as both sides engaged in tit-for-tat escalation. China's countermeasures on US goods reached 125 percent.

Beijing and Washington agreed in Geneva in May to temporarily slash their staggeringly high tariffs -- an outcome Trump dubbed a "total reset".