WASHINGTON – White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi on Friday, people familiar with the matter said, as the two sides look to ease tensions that have continued to build in recent months.

Mr Sullivan’s previously unreported call took place days before Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen is scheduled to stop in the USen route to Central America, a trip that’s likely to further inflame Beijing’s ire. In a sign of the fraught state of US-China ties, neither side opted to publicise the call between Mr Sullivan and Mr Wang.