BEIJING (AP) - A hard-line Chinese general held weekend talks with the former vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff amid heightened tensions over Taiwan’s plans to hold a referendum on joining the United Nations.

Gen. Xiong Guangkai - considered a hawk on relations with Taiwan and the U.S. - led the Chinese delegation in discussions with William Owens, a former submarine commander who was vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1992-96, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said.

Saturday’s talks in southern China’s Hainan province were part of efforts to build dialogue between top retired People’s Liberation Army and U.S. military officers, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The meeting’s topics also included ways of boosting contacts between the two militaries - widely seen as rivals for regional influence - and other issues of common concern, Xinhua reported without giving further details.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said it had no information on the meeting because Owens is a private citizen.

Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949. Beijing considers the self-governing island Chinese territory and has threatened military attack if Taiwan tries to formalize its de facto independence.

Tensions have spiked in recent months over Taiwan’s plans to hold a referendum alongside next month’s presidential elections on whether to seek to join the United Nations under the name "Taiwan," rather than its formal name, the Republic of China.

Taiwan has long sought to rejoin the U.N. after the China seat was transferred to Beijing’s representative in 1971.

Beijing views the referendum as a step toward formal independence and has pressured the U.S. and other nations to denounce the referendum in an apparent bid to force Taipei to abandon it.

The U.S. has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but it is the island’s top arms supplier and is bound by law to ensure the Taiwanese can defend themselves from attack.

Xiong, a former head of military intelligence and deputy chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army, retired from most major posts in recent years. As a member of the ruling Communist Party’s committee on Taiwan policy he was considered one of the country’s most politically influential generals. He now heads the China Institute for International Strategic Studies, a PLA think tank.

Xiong has warned in previous international dialogues that any renunciation of China’s threat of force against Taiwan would result in conflict.

The U.S. has repeatedly urged Beijing to be more open about its massive military buildup, which includes billions of dollars (euros) worth of new warplanes, ships and submarines to project force farther from China’s shores.

Among the issues of greatest concern to Washington has been China’s acquisition of sophisticated diesel submarines that are quieter and harder to detect than the diesel subs of the past.

Despite a steady increase in contacts, ties between the two powers’ militaries have suffered from China’s refusal last year to allow three U.S. Navy ships to dock in Hong Kong.