Biden and Xi met for about four hours on the outskirts of San Francisco to discuss issues that have strained US-China relations.
- Joe Biden says he still believes in the idea that Xi Jinping is a dictator.
- China broke off military contacts with the US after Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
- The two leaders agreed to bring together experts to discuss the risks of AI.
WOODSIDE, Calif.: Following their first face-to-face talks in a year, US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed on Wednesday to open a presidential hotline, resume military-to-military communications and curb fentanyl production. Agreed to work to put.
Biden and Xi met for about four hours on the outskirts of San Francisco to discuss issues that have strained US-China relations.
They plan to resume military contacts that China had severed following the visit of then House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August 2022.
“We are back to direct, open candid direct communication on a direct basis,” Biden said.
Additionally, Biden said he and Xi agreed to high-level communication. “He and I agreed that each of us could pick up the phone call directly and we would be heard immediately.”
But in comments that angered the Chinese, Biden later told reporters he had not changed his view that Xi is a dictator.
Biden said, “Well, look, he is. I mean, he’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a country that is a communist country.”
Xi told Biden that negative views of the Communist Party in the United States were unfair, a US official told reporters after the meeting.
Biden and Xi came to the talks to resolve a tumultuous period in relations that worsened after a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon entered the United States and was shot down by a US fighter jet in February Was.
Biden said he raised areas where Washington has concerns, including detained US citizens, human rights and Beijing’s aggressive activities in the South China Sea.
“Just talking, just speaking clearly with each other so there’s no misunderstanding,” Biden said.
military, taiwan
Biden requested that the two countries institutionalize military-to-military dialogue and that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin would meet with his Chinese counterpart once that person is named, a senior US official said.
There have been several near misses and bitter exchanges between the US and Chinese militaries over the past year.
Biden and Xi agreed that China would ban exports of goods related to the production of the opioid fentanyl, a leading cause of drug overdoses in the United States. “This is going to save lives,” Biden said. He praised Xi’s “commitment” to the issue.
A senior US official told reporters that under the agreement, China would go directly after specific chemical companies that make fentanyl precursors. He vowed to “trust but verify” the Chinese crackdown on the drug.
The two leaders also agreed to bring together experts to discuss the risks of artificial intelligence.
A US official described an exchange on the democratic island of Taiwan, which China claims as its territory. The US official said China’s priority is peaceful reunification with the Chinese-claimed island of Taiwan, Xi told Biden, but Xi went on to talk about situations in which force could be used.
Biden said he stressed the need for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. The US official said Biden argued for maintaining the status quo and for China to respect Taiwan’s electoral process.
“President Xi responded ‘Look, peace is all good, but at some point we need to move towards a more comprehensive solution,'” the official quoted Xi as saying.
Chinese state media said Xi also urged the United States to stop sending weapons to Taiwan and support China’s peaceful “reunification” with Taiwan.
Biden said he asked Xi to use his influence with Iran to urge Tehran not to carry out proxy attacks on US targets in the Middle East as the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza continues.
Respect
Biden welcomed the Chinese leader at the Filoli Estate, a rural home and well-manicured gardens, about 48 km south of San Francisco, where he will later go for the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
Xi came to the meeting expecting respect from the United States as China’s economy struggles to recover from sluggish growth.
Biden, who has long sought the meeting, struck a welcoming tone aimed at showing respect, and treating her as a key player on the global hotspot.
“The earth is big enough for the success of both countries,” Xi told Biden as he and his delegation sat across from each other at a long table in a grand conference room.
Biden said the US and China need to ensure that competition between them “does not turn into conflict” and manage their relationship “responsibly”.
After lunch, after talks that lasted nearly four hours, the leaders took a short walk together in the manicured gardens of the mansion. Asked how the talks were going, Biden waved to reporters and gave two thumbs up. “Okay,” he said.
As they began the conversation, Xi told Biden that a lot had happened since their last meeting in Bali a year ago. “The world has emerged from the COVID pandemic, but is still deeply affected by it. The global economy is recovering, but its pace remains sluggish.”
He called the U.S.-China relationship “the most important bilateral relationship in the world”, and said he and Biden “bear enormous responsibilities for the two peoples, for the world, and for history.”
“For two big countries like China and the United States, turning our backs on each other is not an option,” he said. “It is unrealistic for one side to redesign the other, and conflict and confrontation have unbearable consequences for both sides.”
The leaders of the 21-nation grouping of APEC – and hundreds of CEOs expected to meet with them in San Francisco – are meeting amid relative Chinese economic weakness, Beijing’s regional feuds with neighbors and a Middle East conflict that has drawn the United States closer to allies. Is dividing.
