WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (Portal) – US President Joe Biden hopes to limit the deterioration in relations with China when he meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week, but he will be honest about US concerns, including over Taiwan and human rights, a senior government official said Thursday.
“The President believes it is crucial to establish a basis for the relationship and ensure there are rules binding our competition,” the official told reporters in a call to the meeting.
The White House said Biden would hold talks with Xi Monday on the sidelines of a Group of 20 nations summit in Indonesia, their first face-to-face meeting since Biden took office in January 2021.
Biden and Xi last met in person during the Obama administration, and US-China ties have since fallen to their lowest levels in decades, particularly since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan in August, the self-governing democratic island that Beijing claims to be its territory.
China is Washington’s main strategic rival and the second largest economy in the world after the United States. Biden is seeking stable ties with Beijing despite tensions over Taiwan, the South China Sea, trade and a host of other issues.
The senior administration official said there will be no joint statement from a meeting where concrete agreements are not expected.
“I expect the President will be honest about a number of our concerns, including PRC (People’s Republic of China) activities threatening peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, as well as our long-standing concerns about human rights abuses,” he said Officer.
Russia’s war in Ukraine and North Korea is likely to be discussed, the official said.
Biden said Wednesday he was unwilling to make fundamental concessions when meeting Xi and wanted both leaders to set their “red lines” and resolve areas of conflict, including on Taiwan.
The White House has tried to maintain dialogue, which China cut short after Pelosi’s visit, on areas like climate and military-to-military communications, the official said, but there is no expectation that the two leaders could sit down and resolve everything Your problems.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan later told reporters that the government would update Taiwan on the outcome of Biden’s meetings with Xi, aiming to make Taipei feel “safe and comfortable” on the support to feel through the USA.
NORTH KOREA LEVERAGE
Sullivan said Washington remains concerned about the possibility of North Korea resuming nuclear bomb testing for the first time since 2017.
The day before Biden’s meeting with Xi in Bali, the US leader will hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol on the sidelines of regional meetings in Cambodia to discuss how to contain North Korea’s nuclear program.
US officials have accused both China and Russia of enabling Pyongyang’s missile and bomb programs by improperly enforcing United Nations Security Council sanctions designed to impede them. read on read on
In May, while supporting tightened sanctions following North Korea’s latest nuclear test, Beijing and Moscow vetoed a US-led push to impose further UN penalties on North Korea’s renewed ballistic missile launches.
Washington believes China and Russia have leverage to persuade North Korea not to resume nuclear tests.
“This is an area where China and the United States have worked together in the past…there is a track record of being able to work together. And so I think the President will approach the conversation in that spirit,” the official rapporteur said.
Washington has also noted Xi’s “important” comments about not using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, after Xi agreed in a meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz last week that both leaders opposed their use, the official added.
Ukraine’s western allies have accused Russia of threatening to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, although Moscow denies this, and China has refrained from criticizing Russia for the invasion or urging Moscow to withdraw its troops.
For Xi, who cemented his leadership at a Communist Party convention last month, the meeting with Biden comes as China’s economy grapples with tough COVID-19 prevention measures.
These measures and Xi’s limited travel abroad since the pandemic began have resulted in his previous five meetings with President Biden being conducted virtually.
The US official said the two sides discussed COVID-19 protocols for the meeting but did not elaborate.
Bonnie Glaser, Asia expert at the United States’ German Marshall Fund, said the meeting was an opportunity to ease tensions and China had signaled it wanted to avoid further deterioration in ties.
“But it’s unclear what they are willing to do to achieve that goal,” she said. “The Biden administration has been pushing for talks on risk mitigation measures since mid-2021, and the PRC has not been interested.”
Reporting by Nandita Bose, Michael Martina, Steve Holland, David Brunnstrom, Doina Chiacu, and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Howard Goller
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