President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping spent more than two hours on Thursday discussing the future of their complicated relationship, with the flashpoint of Taiwan re-emerging as a key point of tension.
According to an outline of the call released by Beijing, Xi emphasized China’s claim to the self-governing island and warned Biden against “playing with fire.”
“Those who play with fire will die with it,” the Foreign Office said.
“Hopefully the US will be clear-eyed about this.”
US President Joe Biden (left) spent more than two hours talking with Chinese President Xi Jinping (right). (AP)
The White House released its own description of the conversation on Taiwan, saying Biden “stressed that U.S. policy has not changed and that the United States strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
The goal of the call, which began at 8:33 a.m. EDT and ended at 10:50 a.m. EDT, was to “responsibly manage our differences and work together where our interests align,” he said. say the White House.
As usual, China left no doubt that it blames the US for the deterioration of the relationship between the two countries.
“President Xi stressed that approaching and defining China-US relations in terms of strategic competition and seeing China as the main rival and the most serious long-term challenge would be to misperceive China-US relations and misinterpret the China’s development, and would mislead the people of both countries and the international community,” the Foreign Ministry said.
The island territory of Taiwan has been claimed by China since 1949. (New)
The call came as Biden seeks to find new ways to work with China and contain its influence around the world. Differing perspectives on global health, economic policy and human rights have long tested the relationship, with China’s refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine adding further strain.
The latest pressure point has been a possible visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, which has a democratic government and receives informal US defense support, but which China considers part of its territory.
Beijing has said it would see the trip as a provocation, a threat that US officials are taking more seriously in light of Russia’s incursion into Ukraine.
“If the United States insists on going its own way and challenging China’s results, it will surely be met with strong responses,” Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters earlier in ‘this week.
“All consequences arising from this will be borne by the US.”
Pelosi would be the highest-ranking US elected official to travel to Taiwan since Republican Newt Gingrich visited the island in 1997 when he was Speaker of the House.
Biden told reporters last week that US military officials believed it was “not a good idea” for the speaker to visit the island at this time.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would be the highest-ranking US elected official to travel to Taiwan since Republican Newt Gingrich visited the island in 1997 when he was Speaker of the House. (Getty)
John Kirby, a US national security spokesman, said on Wednesday it was important for Biden and Xi to touch base regularly.
“The president wants to make sure that the lines of communication with President Xi remain open because they need to,” Kirby told reporters at a White House briefing. “There are issues where we can cooperate with China, and there are issues where there is obviously friction and tension.”
Biden and Xi last spoke in March, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“This is one of the most consequential bilateral relationships in the world today, with ramifications far beyond the two individual countries,” Kirby said.
Biden has moved to shift US reliance on Chinese manufacturing, including Congress’ final approval Thursday of legislation to encourage semiconductor companies to build more high-tech plants in the US.
It also wants to rally global democracies to support infrastructure investment in low- and middle-income countries as an alternative to China’s “Belt and Road Initiative,” which aims to boost trade in China with other global markets.
Biden has maintained Trump-era tariffs on many Chinese-made products to maintain leverage over Beijing. But it is weighing whether to ease at least some of them to reduce the impact of rising inflation on American households.
US officials have also criticized China’s “zero-COVID” policy of mass testing and lockdowns in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 on its soil, calling it misguided and worrying it will slow even more global economic growth.
Other points of tension include China’s treatment of Uighur Muslims, whom the US has declared genocide, its militarization of the South China Sea and its global economic and political espionage campaign.
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