President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Joe Biden spoke to each other yesterday, and their exchanges did not really change positions. Joe Biden warned Xi Jinping about the “consequences” of Russian aid for China. The US President “described the implications and consequences of China’s material support for Russia in its brutal attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilians,” the White House said in a brief statement.
If he did not specify what kind of repression China would face if it provided assistance to Russia, then Joe Biden, on the other hand, “detailed” the tough economic and financial sanctions already imposed by the West on the regime of Vladimir Putin, according to the American presidency. A senior US official said the President of the United States was “frank and direct” with his counterpart, a diplomatic way of saying the exchange was probably not overly warm. “Now we will consider the actions (of China), – said the official representative of the executive branch of the United States Jen Psaki.
If the White House announcement was delayed by almost four hours after the end of the interview, then China, for its part, hastened to present its version of the conversation. “The Ukrainian crisis is not what we would like to see,” the Chinese head of state said, according to comments broadcast by Chinese television while the exchange was still underway. According to the same source, he urged his colleague to “work with him for peace and tranquility throughout the world.”
While the United States is urging China to distance itself from Russia, Beijing’s official statements during and after the exchanges between heads of state remain somewhat ambiguous. China is calling on the US and NATO to engage in a “dialogue” with Russia over “security concerns” in Moscow and Kyiv, according to a Foreign Ministry press release following the exchange.
The same press release from the Chinese Foreign Ministry vaguely called on “big countries” to “respect each other.” And he also warns very generally against any form of “broad and indiscriminate sanctions” that could “damage an already struggling global economy and cause irreparable damage. »
Xi Jinping also took to the call to issue a warning to his colleague, saying that “the wrong solution to the Taiwan issue will have a negative impact on bilateral relations.” Joe Biden “reiterated that US policy on Taiwan has not changed” and “insisted that the United States continues to oppose any unilateral change to the status quo.” China claims the island. The United States undertakes to recognize only one China, while supplying Taiwan with weapons for its self-defense.