The two presidents have had a fraught relationship since Biden was sworn into office in January and was quick to criticize Beijing for human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims, suppression of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, and military aggression against Taiwan.
The focus is now on whether warm words will translate to action, with no traditional joint statement from the leaders confirming steps to lower the temperature and the core issues going unresolved.
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Paul Haenle of the Carnegie Endowment for World Peace told the Associated Press that the U.S.-China relationship is “perhaps the most consequential bilateral relationship in the world” and that talking was positive, but actions are unlikely to follow soon.
Another academic, Fang-Yu Chen, told the paper that the pair were moving toward “strategy clarity” but warned that the U.S. is more likely trying to “contain” China than become friendlier with it.
The pair did discuss the topic, with President Biden warning Xi that his support for the independence of the country was “rock-solid” but stopped short of suggesting the U.S. had a “commitment” to protect Taiwan from a Chinese military attack - something which the White House had to row back on last month.
The U.S. “strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” said an official readout after the meeting, while Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the issue “concerns China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as China’s core interest…it is the most important and sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations”.
Biden was joined in the Roosevelt Room for the video call by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a handful of aides, while Xi was accompanied in the East Hall of the Great Hall of the People by communist party director Ding Xuexiang and a number of advisers.
But Biden sought to get reassurances of “simple, straightforward competition” instead of confrontation.
Xi greeted the U.S. president as his “old friend” and echoed Biden’s cordial tone in his own opening remarks.
The pair got on unusually well, with a top aide telling reporters traveling with Biden they had been “taken aback” by “the comfort that they have with one another, their willingness to really talk about the issues in a way that was personal, anecdotal, sort of building on each other’s analysis,” according to NBC News.
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