President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday discussed Taiwan, synthetic intelligence and security issues in a call aimed at demonstrating a return to normal leaders’ discussion between the two powers.
The call, described through the White House as “frank and constructive,” was the first verbal exchange between the leaders since their November summit in California resulted in renewed ties between the two countries’ militaries and a pledge of greater cooperation to stop the deadly attacks. Fentanyl and alcohol. Its precursors come from China.
The call also marks the beginning of several weeks of high-level engagements between the two countries: Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, travel to China on Thursday and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, in the coming weeks.
Biden has pushed for sustained interactions at all levels of government, believing that this is imperative to prevent the festival between the two major economies and the nuclear powers from escalating into a direct conflict. Although in-person summits are held once a year, the officials said, Washington and Beijing recognize the price of more common compromises between leaders.
Xi told Biden that the two countries adhere to the precept of “non-confrontation, non-confrontation” as one of the precepts for this year.
“We prioritize stability, don’t cause unrest, don’t cross lines, but maintain the overall stability of China-U. S. relations,” Xi said, according to China Central Television, the state-run broadcaster.
The two leaders discussed Taiwan ahead of next month’s inauguration of Lai Ching-te, the island’s president-elect, who has pledged to safeguard its de facto independence from China and bring it more into line with other democracies. Biden reaffirmed the long-standing U. S. stance. China regards Taiwan as an internal factor and has strongly protested against the U. S. over the island.
Taiwan remains the “first red line that will not have to be crossed,” Xi told Biden, and under pressure that Beijing would not tolerate separatist activities through Taiwan’s independence forces, as well as “external leniency and matrix” that alluded to Washington’s for the island.
Biden also raised considerations about China’s operations in the South China Sea, adding efforts last month to save the Philippines, to which the U. S. is bound by the treaty, from restocking its forces at the disputed Second Thomas Bank.
Next week, Biden will host Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House for a joint summit where China’s influence in the region will be the most sensible item on the agenda.
Biden, in the call with Xi, suggested China do more to fulfill its commitments to prevent the flow of illegal narcotics and limit more precursor chemicals to save their export. The pledge was made at the Leaders’ Summit held in Woodside, California, last year on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.
At the November summit, Biden and Xi also agreed that their governments would hold formal discussions on the promises and dangers of complex synthetic intelligence, which they are expected to take positions in the coming weeks. The two men discussed the factor on Tuesday, just two weeks away. after China and the U. S. joined more than 120 countries in backing a United Nations solution calling for global safeguards around emerging technology.
Biden, in the call, reinforced warnings to Xi about his opposition to meddling in the 2024 U. S. election, as well as ongoing malicious cyberattacks on U. S. critical infrastructure, according to a senior U. S. administration official who foresaw the call on condition of anonymity.
He also raised considerations about human rights in China, adding Hong Kong’s new restrictive national security law and the treatment of minority groups, and discussed the plight of Americans detained or banned from leaving China.
The president also pressed his Chinese counterpart on Beijing’s defense relations with Russia, which is seeking to rebuild its trade base as it continues its war in Ukraine. And he called on Beijing to exert its influence on North Korea to rein in the remote and erratic nuclear power. .
Biden also raised concerns with Xi about China’s “unfair economic practices,” the official said, reaffirming that the U. S. would take steps to safeguard its security and economic interests, adding that it would proceed to restrict the movement of certain complex technologies to China.
Xi complained that the U. S. has taken more steps to suppress China’s economy, industry and generation in recent months and that the list of sanctioned Chinese corporations has grown longer and longer, which “lessens dangers but creates dangers,” according to the channel. .
Yellen’s call comes ahead of Yellen’s to Guangzhou and Beijing for a week of bilateral meetings on the issue with monetary leaders from the world’s second-largest economy, with the participation of Vice Premier He Lifeng, China’s central bank governor Pan Gongsheng and former Vice Premier Liu He. as. as well as U. S. corporations and local leaders.
A notice says Yellen will “advocate with U. S. staff and businesses to ensure they are treated fairly, and will also lobby her Chinese counterparts on unfair industrial practices. “
This comes after Xi’s meeting in Beijing with U. S. business leaders last week, in which he highlighted the mutually favorable economic ties between the two countries and called for people-to-people exchanges to maintain relations.
Xi told the Americans that the two countries had remained communicative and had “made progress” on issues such as trade, the fight against drugs and climate improvement since his meeting with Biden in November. Last week’s high-profile meeting was seen as an effort by Beijing to stabilize bilateral relations. relations.
Yellen said last week that Beijing is flooding the market with green energy that “distorts global prices. “He said he intends to share with his counterparts his confidence that Beijing’s increased production of solar power, electric cars and lithium-ion batteries poses dangers to the productivity and expansion of the global economy.
Renewed fear among U. S. lawmakers about Chinese ownership of TikTok has led to a new law that would ban the popular social media app if its China-based owner, ByteDance, sells its stake in the platform within six months of the bill being enacted.
As chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which examines foreign ownership of companies in the country, Yellen has a great deal of freedom to determine how the company can continue to operate in the country.
Meanwhile, China’s leaders have set a 5% economic expansion target this year, despite a slowdown exacerbated by turmoil in the asset sector and the lingering effects of strict anti-virus measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic that disrupted travel, logistics, production and other industries.
China is the dominant player in the EV battery sector and has an expanding automotive industry that may challenge the world’s established automakers as it goes global.
Last year, the U. S. The U. S. Department of Agriculture (FDA) has outlined plans to prevent EV buyers from claiming tax credits if they buy vehicles containing battery materials from China and other countries deemed hostile to the U. S. U. S. In addition, the Ministry of Commerce has launched an investigation into possible risks to national security. Chinese car exports to the United States.
Miller, Tang and Hussein write for the Associated Press.
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