Failure to properly handle sensitive issues between the US and China could "very likely disturb and undermine" their military-to-military relations, a top Chinese official told US National Security Advisor Susan Rice Monday.
Rice is the highest-level US official to visit the capital since an international tribunal this month rejected China's vast territorial claims in the South China Sea -- infuriating Beijing and fuelling tensions with Washington.
Her trip is intended to prepare for a visit by President Barack Obama to a G20 summit in the city of Hangzhou in September.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on July 12 denied the legal basis for Beijing's claim to nearly all of the sea, parts of which are also claimed by neighbouring nations.
In recent months Washington has sent naval vessels close to reefs and outcrops claimed by Beijing to assert the principle of freedom of navigation, sparking anger in China which has built a series of artificial islands in the area capable of supporting military operations.
President Xi Jinping told Rice at a meeting Monday that China was "strongly committed" to building good relations with the US based upon the ideas of "no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation".
But at an earlier encounter with Rice, top Chinese official Fan Changlong, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission warned that ties between the two powers could easily fray.
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