Xi Jinping and Joe Biden speak at the US-China Business Roundtable in 2012.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg
Photographer: Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg
President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are preparing to speak in hours, for the first time since the new Washington administration took office last month, according to two people familiar with the case.
The conversation between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies will take place as tensions remain high on issues such as Beijing’s tightening grip on Hong Kong, trade, technology and human rights in Xinjiang, among other issues.
A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The call came after Biden spoke to numerous other colleagues around the world, including European and Asian allies and even Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Xi and Biden have pledged to find common ground wherever possible, including on topics such as climate change. Still, Biden and his team are clear that they intend to maintain the Trump administration’s more hostile approach to China, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying in his hearing that China is “ the main challenge of any nation-state to the United States. “
On a visit to the Pentagon on Wednesday, Biden said he had ordered Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to create a task force to review national security policy on China.
Blinken prints China Diplomat on Human Rights, Hong Kong (1)
According to two people familiar with the case, tensions between the US and China have not eased during a recent phone conversation between Blinken and top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi. Chinese officials objected to what they said was an overly negative tone to the US summary of the call, while Blinken’s team felt China’s talk put words into the mouth of the Secretary of State about the “One China” policy regarding Taiwan.
China has generally approached the US cautiously since Biden’s election and Trump’s unprecedented campaign to challenge the outcome. While Xi Biden sent a congratulatory message in late November, he hasn’t spoken to a sitting US president since March last year.
Shortly after that latest call, Washington and Beijing found themselves in a series of disputes that saw their relationship sink to the lowest point since the height of the Cold War. The two countries have exchanged sanctions, expelled journalists, closed each other’s consulates, and fought over everything from Taiwan to the origins of the coronavirus in recent months.
Biden has met Xi repeatedly over the years, including as vice president, and until recently praised his friendship with the Chinese leader. He gave a tougher assessment of the campaign trail last year, calling Xi a “criminal” who has “no democratic – with-a-little-” leg in his body. “
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Trade with China will be a top economic priority for Biden. China failed to meet its 2020 trade goals under the Trump administration’s “phase one” deal, buying just under 60% of the $ 172 billion in goods it said it would buy . That could lead to calls for Biden to renegotiate the deal, which will expire in a year.
The two countries have also clashed over technology, with the US looking to curb the growth of Chinese technology champions. The Trump administration used export controls, entity lists, and executive orders to companies, including Huawei Technologies Co., chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., ByteDance Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. of US goods and consumers.
The status of the democratically-run island of Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory, has also emerged as one of the main focal points between the two parties. Trump oversaw a dramatic expansion of ties with Taipei, including a visit by then-Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar last August.
Chinese leaders usually try to persuade their US counterparts to reaffirm the country’s commitment to the One China policy. Trump reaffirmed the policy, which the People’s Republic recognizes as the only legal government in China, during his first meeting with Xi in 2017, and State Department spokesman Ned Price said in another briefing that the Biden administration took that position. will not change.
– With help from Jenny Leonard