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President Biden held telephone talks Tuesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping that included what the White House described as “candid and constructive” discussions on Chinese coercion of Taiwan and growing tensions between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea.
The call was billed as a follow-up to two face-to-face meetings between Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi, one in Bali, Indonesia, in 2022 and a second on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in California in November. Both sides have attempted to lower the temperature on the bilateral relationship after friction increased throughout much of 2023.
“President Biden emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the rule of law and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea,” the White House said in a statement shortly after the call ended.
Mr. Biden talked to his Chinese counterpart about “areas of cooperation and areas of difference,” the White House readout said.
Mr. Biden raised U.S. concerns about rising Chinese military activity near Taiwan, an island democracy that Beijing has vowed to take over one day, including daily Chinese warplane and warship activities around the island, a senior Biden administration official told reporters in advance of the call.
While saying he prefers peaceful reunification, Mr. Xi has ordered the Chinese military to be ready for action against the island in the coming years.
China’s official Xinhua news service said after the phone call that Mr. Xi cited “three overarching principles” that should guide the bilateral relationship: maintaining peace and ruling out a future conflict, restoring “stability” to the relationship and refraining from actions that set back ties, and “credibility” in honoring recent commitments designed to ease bilateral strains.
Mr. Biden raised the prospect of deeper cooperation in countering Chinese sales of chemicals used in producing deadly fentanyl and renewed direct communications between the U.S. military and the People’s Liberation Army.
The two leaders also addressed proposed discussions on the risks posed by artificial intelligence and climate change, as well as the need to promote more U.S.-Chinese people exchanges.
Mr. Biden raised U.S. concerns about China’s support to Russia’s defense industrial base as it pursues its war in Ukraine and the impact on trans-Atlantic security. The president also said the United States remains committed to the “complete denuclearization” of North Korea.
Beijing’s trade practices and non-market economic practices also were topics of discussion. China has complained about U.S. tariffs on its exports and new restrictions on U.S. technology sales to Chinese companies. Congress is debating a forced sale or outright ban of the popular Chinese-owned TikTok app, a move Beijing has sharply criticized.
“The president emphasized that the United States will continue to take necessary actions to prevent advanced U.S. technologies from being used to undermine our national security, without unduly limiting trade and investment,” the White House statement said.
In Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Mr. Xi told Mr. Biden that tensions remain, but that the bilateral relationship had begun to stabilize following the November meeting in California.
“On the other hand, the negative factors of the relationship have also been growing, and this requires attention from both sides,” the ministry said in a statement.
The statement said Mr. Biden told Mr. Xi that the U.S.-China relationship is the most important in the world and that U.S. policy is not seeking to change China’s communist system. China and the United States should not cut ties or “slide into conflict or confrontation,” Mr. Xi said.
“The two sides should refrain from setting the relationship back, provoking incidents or crossing the line, so as to maintain the overall stability of the relationship,” the statement said.
Mr. Xi said supporting independence for Taiwan is “the first red line that must not be crossed in China-U.S. relations.” He also criticized U.S. sanctions and controls on trade and technology saying it is “not de-risking but creating risks,” adding that Beijing was ready to respond in kind to what it considers economic coercion from Washington.
“If the U.S. side is willing to seek mutually beneficial cooperation and share in China’s development dividends, it will always find China’s door open,” the Foreign Ministry readout said. “But if it is adamant on containing China’s high-tech development and depriving China of its legitimate right to development, China is not going to sit back and watch.”
As part of U.S. policy of seeking to manage competition with China and prevent a conflict, Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi said they welcomed better communications and planned working-level consultations in the coming weeks.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, viewed as among the administration’s more pro-China officials, is set to visit China in the coming days. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to China in the coming weeks.
A senior Biden administration official who briefed reporters in advance said the call was the first time the two leaders had spoken by phone since July 2022.
The two summits and ongoing dialogues at senior levels seek to prevent an “unintended conflict,” said the official, speaking on background.
Mr. Biden was said to want “substantive action” in curbing imports of fentanyl precursors, noting that some progress has been made in dealing with the problem, the official said. Still, the official said, “the drug trade is evolving,” suggesting a continuation of chemical precursor shipments.
Federal authorities say drug overdose deaths from fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans in the past several years.
On military communications, the official noted that Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with a Chinese military leader in December and that a session of the so-called military maritime consultative commission will meet this week in Hawaii.
China has been aggressively using its naval and coast guard vessels to prevent the Philippine government from resupplying a grounded ship used as a military base in the contested Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. Adm. John C. Aquilino, commander of the Indo-Pacific Command, warned in congressional testimony last month that the increasing Chinese aggression could lead Manila to invoke its defense treaty with the United States if a Filipino dies in a maritime incident.
U.S. officials described the administration’s policy toward China as a combination of “invest, align, and compete.”
Another issue Mr. Biden planned to raise during the call is Chinese election interference in the U.S. presidential election, the official said.
“All of this is focused on de-risking, not decoupling,” said the official, noting that the Biden-Xi call is “more of check-in” between the two leaders rather than a more substantive summit meeting.
China is viewed as America’s top geopolitical rival, so relations with the Asian superpower will be featured in Mr. Biden’s rematch this year with former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican Party nominee.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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