WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping will speak Thursday, a U.S. official said, their first conversation in four months amid renewed tensions between Washington and Beijing over China’s claims to Taiwan.
The planned talks between the two leaders – the fifth in a series of regular inspections – have been in the works for weeks. But the possibility of a visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress and second in line to the presidency, has added new strain to the complicated relationship.
Beijing has warned it will take “forceful measures” if Pelosi visits the self-governing island of Taiwan, which China claims is part of its territory.
The US official declined to remain anonymous ahead of the public announcement. The schedule was first reported by Bloomberg.
Pelosi has not confirmed plans to visit Taiwan, but Biden told reporters last week that the US military thought it was “not a good idea” for the speaker to visit the island at this time. Biden’s comments came after the Financial Times reported last week that Pelosi planned to visit Taiwan in August, a trip she had originally planned to make in April but was postponed after she tested positive for COVID-19.
The spokesman declined to comment on whether he plans to visit Taiwan, citing security protocol for his travel. But she said Biden’s comment stemmed from the military leadership “being afraid of our plane being shot down or something by the Chinese.” She will be the highest-ranking US elected official to visit Taiwan since Republican Newt Gingrich visited the island in 1997, when he was speaker of the House of Representatives.
“It’s important for us to show support for Taiwan,” Pelosi said. “None of us have ever said that we are for independence when it comes to Taiwan. That is up to Taiwan to decide.
Administration officials have stressed privately to Pelosi that the Taiwan trip could further complicate the delicate status quo.
Chinese officials have been tight-lipped in sending a message that Pelosi’s visit will be seen as a change in US policy and treated as a provocation.
“If the US insists on going its way, China will take decisive measures to resolutely respond and counter, and we will do what we say,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.
The US has a long-standing commitment to the “One China” policy, which recognizes Beijing as the government of China but allows for informal relations and defense ties with Taipei. In recent years, China has stepped up its military provocations against Taiwan and there are fears that it is trying to intimidate the island into accepting Beijing’s demands for unification with the communist mainland.
The talks between Biden and Xi could also include a discussion of North Korea’s nuclear program, differences between Beijing and Washington over Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Biden administration’s efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal and the status of the U.S. administration’s review of sanctions tough tariffs on China by the Trump administration.
“There are problems with tensions in that relationship,” John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, said Tuesday. “But there are also issues where we believe cooperation is not only possible but necessary, for example on climate change, which affects us greatly.”
Long-simmering differences over Taiwan have come into intense focus since Russia’s invasion and ongoing efforts to annex parts of eastern Ukraine.
As the U.S. struggled to assemble a global coalition to hit the Russian economy with heavy sanctions following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden warned allies — especially those in the Indo-Pacific region — that Beijing would be watching closely how democracies respond as it believes for his next steps for Taiwan.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday he feared Beijing could draw some “concerned” conclusions from the five-month war in Eastern Europe. But he suggested the moment had also led to careful reflection in Taipei.
“Not that many people are asking, ‘Is Taiwan learning lessons from Ukraine?’, and you can bet they are,” Sullivan said during an appearance at a security forum in Aspen. “They are learning lessons about citizen mobilization and territorial defense. They learn lessons about information warfare and how to set up the information space. And they are learning lessons about how to prepare for a potential contingency involving China, and they are working quickly to do so.
Taiwan was a central topic during the last call between Biden and Xi in March, about three weeks after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
China has repeatedly threatened to assert its claim to Taiwan by force and has conducted hundreds of flights into Taiwan’s airspace since Biden took office 18 months ago. The US is legally bound to ensure that the self-governing island democracy can defend itself and treats threats to it with serious concern.
The conversation also comes as Biden’s national security and economic aides are nearing completion of a review of US tariff policy and preparing to make recommendations to the president.
The tariffs, imposed under President Donald Trump, imposed a 25 percent tariff on billions of dollars of Chinese products. The sanctions were intended to reduce the US trade deficit and force China to adopt fairer practices.
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