U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time since his inauguration three weeks ago.

The White House said in a statement on Wednesday that in the phone call, Biden "underscored his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices."

He also raised concern over China's "crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan."

The two leaders also spoke on countering the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and preventing weapons proliferation.

The phone call comes as relations between the world's two largest economies are increasingly strained, with Biden saying that his administration was prepared for "extreme competition" with China.