Joe Biden made his first call for president on Wednesday with Xi Jinping, pressuring the Chinese leader over trade and Beijing’s crackdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong, as well as other human rights issues.
The two leaders spoke just hours after Biden announced plans for a Pentagon task force to review U.S. national security strategy in China and after the new US president announced that he was imposing sanctions on Myanmar’s military regime after this month’s coup in the Southeast Asian country.
A White House statement said Biden expressed concern about Beijing’s “coercive and unfair economic practices.” Biden also urged Xi on Hong Kong, human rights violations against Uyghurs and ethnic minorities in western Xinjiang province, and his actions against Taiwan.
“I told him I will work with China if it benefits the American people,” Biden posted on Twitter after the phone call.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV took a mostly positive tone on the talk, saying Xi acknowledged that the two sides had their differences and those differences should be managed, but pushed for full cooperation.
CCTV said Xi recoiled from Biden’s concerns about Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang, saying the issues are China’s internal affairs and concern Chinese sovereignty. He warned, “The US must respect China’s core interests and be careful.”
Biden, who had dealt with the Chinese leader when he was Barack Obama’s vice president, used his first three weeks in the White House to hold several talks with other leaders in the Indo-Pacific region. He has sought to convey the message that he would approach China radically differently from former President Donald Trump, who placed trade and economic issues above all else in the US-China relationship.
With Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga late last month, Biden underscored US commitment to protecting the Senkaku Islands, a group of uninhabited islets administered by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing. In his appeal with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Biden stressed the need for “close cooperation to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific”. And in his appeal with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week, the president stressed that the alliance of the two nations was essential to stability in the region, the White House said.
Top Biden employees have repeatedly heard from Asian-Pacific counterparts who were discouraged by Trump’s often sharp rhetoric targeting allies, talk of reducing troops in South Korea and strange interactions with North Korean dictator Kim Jong -un, said a senior government official. who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations.
Allies in the region have made it clear, according to the official, that they want a more focused and stable approach to future engagements.
To that end, Biden and other top officials in their initial interactions with their counterparts made sure to look at the long game in resetting the relationships.
Biden took advantage of Wednesday’s call to voice his concerns about Beijing’s crackdown on activists in Hong Kong and his policies towards Muslims and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. In the closing hours of the Trump administration, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that the Chinese Communist Party had committed crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other minority groups.
China has denied any abuse and says the steps it has taken are necessary to combat terrorism and a separatist movement.
The White House also said Biden expressed concern about Beijing’s increasingly “assertive” move towards Taiwan. Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, even though the two sides have been ruled separately for more than seven decades.
Days after Biden’s presidency, China sent warplanes close to the island. The US Navy, in turn, last week sent a guided missile destroyer through the waterway separating China and Taiwan.
One area that Biden doesn’t seem ready to move on anytime soon is ending Trump’s trade war with China, which led to tariffs on their steel, aluminum and other goods.
Biden plans to put the tariffs in place while his government reviews trade policy from top to bottom. Administrative officials note that the president is still awaiting confirmation of his nominee for U.S. Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, and his choice of trade secretary, Gina Raimondo. Both are expected to play a key role in shaping China’s trade policy.
Board officials say Biden also wants to consult with allies in Asia and Europe before making decisions on tariffs.
Biden and Xi know each other well and have had candid conversations.
Biden hosted then-Chinese Vice President Xi on his visit to the United States in 2012. Biden used that visit to read Xi and was at times blunt, even expressing concern about Chinese intellectual property theft and human rights violations during a lunch break .
The following year, when Biden visited China, he publicly criticized Beijing for refusing to confirm that it would renew US journalists’ visas and block the websites of US-based news media sites.
Biden has said he believes there are areas where the US and China can work closely together, such as tackling climate change and preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Ultimately, Biden said recently, he expects the US-China relationship to be “extreme competition” in the coming years.
On Thursday, China’s state broadcaster said Xi told Biden, “You said America’s greatest feature is opportunity. I hope that opportunities like this will develop in a way that is conducive to improving relations between the two countries. ”
Associated Press writer Huizhong Wu in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.