US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met in California on Wednesday, November 15, for the first time in a year with the aim of reducing tensions between the two world superpowers on various issues such as armed conflict, artificial intelligence and drug trafficking .
Joe Biden welcomed Xi Jinping to the Filoli estate, located nearly fifty kilometers south of San Francisco in the wealthy town of Woodside, where an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) summit is taking place.
At the beginning of their meeting, the American president said that the United States and China must ensure that competition between the two capitals does not “turn into conflict” and that they must conduct their bilateral relations “responsibly” as it is Topics such as climate change and artificial intelligence demanded their joint attention.
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After this first round of discussions and before a lunch with his Chinese counterpart, Joe Biden also said on the social network X that it is crucial that the two leaders get along. “There are global challenges that require our collective leadership. And today we made real progress,” he wrote.
The White House said in a statement that the two presidents had “candid and constructive” exchanges on a range of bilateral and global issues.
Xi Jinping reminded Joe Biden at the start of their meeting on Wednesday that a lot has happened since their last summit in Bali in 2022. “The world has weathered the Covid-19 pandemic but is still reeling from its significant impact. “The global economy is recovering, but its momentum remains slow,” the Chinese president said.
“Turning away is not an option”
Xi Jinping described China-US relations as “the most important bilateral relationship in the world” and said it was up to him and Joe Biden to “assume important responsibilities for the two peoples, for the world and for history.” “For two major countries like China and the United States, turning their backs on each other is not an option,” the Chinese president said, adding that it was “unrealistic” for one side to want to “transform” the other, with serious consequences confrontation for the two countries.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing heightened earlier this year when the United States shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon over its territory, an incident that China regretted and denied American allegations.
Xi Jinping warned on Wednesday that U.S. sanctions against Chinese companies violated Beijing’s “legitimate interests,” China’s state media also reported. “US measures against China regarding export controls (…)” [et] “Investments and unilateral sanctions seriously harm China’s legitimate interests,” Mr. Xi told Mr. Biden during their interview, national news agency Xinhua reported.
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High-level ministerial meetings have been organized in recent months to prevent an escalation of tensions between the two countries. The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, visited China in particular in June.
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Joe Biden, running for a second term, and Xi Jinping, facing a deteriorating economic and social situation in his country, ultimately have an interest in ensuring that their rivalry continues in a potentially turbulent 2024 with the upcoming presidential election Control remains in the United States, but also in Taiwan. The status of the island, over which Beijing claims sovereignty and to which Washington provides significant military aid, remains a key point of contention.
Communication and fentanyl
Joe Biden “will make clear (…) that we do not support Taiwanese independence” and “that we do not want the status quo to change unilaterally, let alone by force,” said a White House spokesman, John Kirby reiterated thus the deliberately ambiguous position of the United States.
Washington also calls on China, an ally of Iran and Russia, not to exacerbate current major international crises: the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas and the war in Ukraine.
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The two leaders also agreed to resume high-level military communications, Beijing state media reported on Thursday. “Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed on Wednesday to resume high-level military communications based on equality and respect,” the agency wrote. New China Press.
Xi Jinping also agreed to take “consistent” action against fentanyl trafficking. This powerful synthetic opiate, made with chemical compounds primarily from China, causes tens of thousands of overdoses in the United States each year.