A mainland-based political commentator says relations between China and the United States have improved, but both countries need to work together to resolve conflicts.

Einar Tangen, a senior fellow at the Taihe Institute and chairman of Asia Narratives, was commenting after President Xi Jinping said China and the US should be partners, not rivals, during his meeting with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday.

"Well, I mean it's better than it was last year at this time. There's at least communication going on. There's more planned communication. It's very important, you have to keep talking especially when you have global tensions like this. There are so many issues that need to be tackled," he said, while appearing on RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme.

Tangen said that, although the Biden administration would most likely continue to see China as a threat, this wasn't the case for business.

"Business interests are very interested in cooperating and this is a kind of a medium term situation," he said. "You have Elon Musk coming to China."

On Sunday Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, made an unannounced visit to Beijing, where he was expected to discuss the roll-out of Full Self-Driving software and permission to transfer data overseas, the Reuters news agency reported.

State media said Musk had met Premier Li Qiang, who said Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation.