China’s envoy to the United States has said the two countries were trying to resolve their differences over trade, but warned that forces were trying to drive a wedge between the two.

Cui Tiankai, speaking at a dinner hosted by the US-China Business Council on Wednesday, said US-China ties were at a critical crossroads due to trade frictions, but it was possible to return to a better path.

“At the same time, we must be alert that some destructive forces are taking advantage of the ongoing trade friction [through] extreme rhetoric such as ‘decoupling’, the ‘new Cold War’, and ‘clash of civilisations’,” the ambassador said, without providing further details.

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He urged US and Chinese companies keen to expand trade between the two countries to stand up against what he called efforts to “spread hostility and even create conflict between us”, as well as “fake news” about the situations in both Hong Kong and Xinjiang, China’s troubled western region that is home to a large Uighur Muslim minority, whom US officials have said are the victims of human rights abuses.

The lurking tensions in US-Chinese relations were further highlighted when the technology company, Huawei, announced on Thursday that it has mounted a legal challenge against the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for labelling it and another Chinese firm, ZTE, a security threat.

The FCC argued the companies’ ties to China’s government and military apparatus, and Chinese laws requiring that such companies assist the Chinese government with intelligence activities, pose a US national security risk.

“Banning a company like Huawei, just because we started in China - this does not solve cyber security challenges,” Huawei’s chief legal officer Song Liuping said at a news conference at the firm’s headquarters in Shenzhen.

Cui’s comments came a day after president Donald Trump said a long-awaited interim trade agreement with China could be delayed until after the US presidential election in November 2020, and amid US legislative moves to address the Uighur issue.

The US and China have been locked in a bitter trade war for 17 months, with the US government cracking down on a broad range of what it sees as efforts by the Chinese government to steal US technology and dominate global markets.

Anti-government demonstrations in Hong Kong and Beijing’s treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority have also fanned longstanding human rights concerns. Beijing views US actions on both issues as interference in its sovereign concerns.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest China’s ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters

The Democratic-led US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday for a bill that would require the Trump administration to toughen its response to China’s crackdown on the Uighurs. China warned earlier on Wednesday that the US legislation would affect bilateral cooperation, clouding prospects for a near-term deal to end a trade war.

Cui did not echo those remarks directly, but said reports about both the situation in Hong Kong and Xinjiang had been seriously distorted. “Facts are facts, no matter how much fake news is generated,” he said.

He did not address the US-Chinese trade talks specifically, but said Beijing remained committed to expanding bilateral trade and investment between the two countries.