Secretary of State Rubio spoke with China's Director of the CCP Central Foreign Affairs Commission and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi by phone on Friday, China's foreign ministry said, the first call between the two top diplomats since President Donald Trump's administration took office on Monday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longtime China hawk, expressed concern about Beijing’s coercive behavior against Taiwan and aggression in the South China Sea in his first formal call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday,

The new Secretary of State already has said the Hong Kong-based operator of Panama Canal-adjacent ports could be a “big national security and defense problem.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Panama on his first trip abroad as the top U.S. diplomat after President

Vice President JD Vance has sworn in Rubio as Secretary of State, the first of Trump’s Cabinet nominees to take the job.