President Joe Biden spoke by telephone with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday night to underscore U.S. frustration with Beijing’s lack of seriousness in its engagement with American officials to date.
“The two leaders had a broad, strategic discussion in which they discussed areas where our interests converge, and areas where our interests, values, and perspectives diverge,” the White House said in an account of the conversation, adding that “discussed the responsibility of both nations to ensure competition does not veer into conflict.”
The call was the second between the two leaders and comes as the relationship is becoming increasingly adversarial. The conversation was initiated by the American president after meetings involving his cabinet officials and Chinese counterparts over the past months remained unfruitful, a senior administration official told reporters before the call.
Biden’s goal was to see whether personal engagement with Xi could set the relationship on a more serious path and help advance issues where both sides can cooperate, the official said.
The White House is still reviewing its overall China policy, including how to proceed with roughly $300 billion in tariffs facing Chinese imports and a trade agreement that was struck under the previous administration.
The U.S. official criticized China’s linking of transnational and bilateral matters, essentially holding hostage any progress on areas like climate change while demanding unrelated concessions in return.
That was clear when Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last week. “China-U.S. climate change cooperation cannot be separated from the general environment of relations,” Wang said, according to the ministry. “The United States should meet China halfway and take positive actions to push relations back on track.”
Biden and Xi spoke for the first time in February but since then, the two countries have repeatedly clashed over human rights, cybersecurity as well as an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, on which China refuses to cooperate. A face-to-face meeting is still a possibility on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting in Rome in late October, though the official said there were no concrete plans to announce.
Xi has not confirmed his attendance at the G-20 meeting, according to a government official and senior European diplomat. The official cited Covid-19 protocols as the reason he may not attend in person.—Bloomberg
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