CHICAGO, Illinois: United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that tensions with China had eased, but renewed alarm over Beijing's intentions on Taiwan.

Asked in an appearance at the University of Chicago if the temperature had subsided with China, Blinken replied: 'I think so, because when you're talking and engaging, it tends to have that effect.'

'The rest of the world expects us to manage this relationship responsibly. They know that the way we manage it is actually going to affect them, too,' he said.

The top diplomat will visit the Chinese capital on February 5 and 6, according to a US official, in the first trip by a secretary of state to the East Asian power since October 2018.

The trip was decided after US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held talks on the wide-ranging friction between their countries during the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia's resort island of Bali in November.

But Blinken again voiced alarm over Taiwan, which is claimed by China, pointing to Beijing's growing efforts to isolate the self-governing democracy and the major military exercises it carried out near the island after then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi and her delegation visited it in August.

'What we've seen over the last few years is, I think, China makes a decision that it was no longer comfortable with the status quo, a status quo that had prevailed for decades that had actually been successful in terms of the relationship between our countries and managing what is a difficult situation,' Blinken said.

'What we say to China is this: they say this is a sovereign issue for us; our response is this is an interest to the United States and to countries around the world,' he said, pointing to Taiwan's dominance in semiconductors crucial for the global economy

Blinken was on a trip to Chicago that included visiting the midwestern metropolis' historic Ukrainian community to discuss the response to Russia's invasion.