WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping held the fifth conversation of their presidencies Thursday, talking for more than two hours as they charted the future of their complicated relationship at a time of simmering economic and geopolitical tensions.
The call began at 8:33 a.m. EDT and ended at 10:50 a.m. EDT, according to the White House. It comes as Biden seeks to find new ways to deal with a growing global power, as well as strategies to limit China’s influence around the world. Differing views 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 two heads of state had in-depth communication and exchange of views on Sino-US relations and matters of mutual interest,” China’s central television said on its website.
The latest pressure point was a potential visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, the democratically-ruled island that receives unofficial US defense support but which China considers part of its territory. Beijing has said it would view such a trip as a provocation, a threat that US officials are taking with increased seriousness in light of Russia’s incursion into Ukraine.
“If the US insists on going its own way and challenging China’s bottom line, it will certainly be met with strong responses,” Zhao Lijian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, told reporters earlier this week. “All consequences arising from this are borne by the US”
Pelosi will 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 of Representatives. Last week, Biden told reporters that the U.S. military thought it was “not a good idea” for the speaker to visit the island right now.
John Kirby, a US national security spokesman, said on Wednesday that 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 significant bilateral relationships in the world today, with ramifications far beyond the two individual countries,” Kirby said.
The talk comes as Biden moves to shift U.S. reliance on Chinese manufacturing, including the Senate’s passage on Wednesday of legislation to encourage semiconductor companies to build more high-tech plants in the U.S. Biden wants to get global democracies to support infrastructure investment in low and medium -income nations as an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to boost China’s trade with other world markets.
Kirby listed a number of areas of friction between the US and China that he said would be part of the conversation, including “tensions over Taiwan, tensions over … China’s aggressive behavior in the Indo-Pacific outside of Taiwan, tensions in economic relations” and about China’s response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Biden, who has kept Trump-era tariffs on many Chinese-made goods in place to maintain his influence with Beijing, is considering whether to ease at least some of them in a move 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 attempt to limit the spread of COVID-19 on its soil, calling it flawed and worried it will further slow global economic growth.
Other points of tension include China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims, which the US has declared genocide, its militarization of the South China Sea and its global campaign of economic and political espionage.
Add Comment