WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden expressed concerns to Chinese leader Xi Jinping about human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang late Wednesday in their first call since Biden took office on January 20, according to the White House.

Biden offered Xi his "greetings and well wishes" to the Chinese people on the occasion of the Lunar New Year celebrations, the White House said in a statement.

He also "underscored his fundamental concerns about Beijing's coercive and unfair economic practices, crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan," it said.