In hours-long virtual meeting, Biden and Xi manage strained U.S.-China ties

Biden raised concerns about China’s suppression of minorities in Xinjiang province, about unfair trade and economic practices and its recent aggression against Taiwan.

Xi, according to China’s central broadcaster, offered assurances that China, which has pledged to unify Taiwan with China by force if necessary, would do its “utmost” to achieve peaceful reunification.

The two leaders also discussed the existential nature of the climate crisis and the important roles played by their respective countries, the world’s top two emitters of greenhouse gases. They also talked about how they would continue this engagement in the future.

“As I said before, it seems to be our responsibility — as leaders of China and the United States — to ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer into conflict, whether intended or unintended,” Biden told Xi in brief remarks in front of reporters at the White Hose before the private summit began. “Just simple, straightforward competition. It seems to me we need to establish a common-sense guardrail, to be clear and honest where we disagree and work together where our interests intersect, especially on vital global issues like climate change.”

Xi said China was willing to hold dialogues on human rights issues “on the basis of mutual respect,” but said Beijing would not support interference in its internal affairs. Xi warned that China would take “decisive measures” against any moves to support Taiwan’s independence from China whose ruling Chinese Communist Party has never governed Taiwan. “Such moves are extremely dangerous, just like playing with fire. Whoever plays with fire will get burned,” he said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday that Biden has “emphasized the need to come to this relationship, one, through the prism of competition, from a position of strength as it relates to what we’re doing at home.” The president, she added, “is coming into this meeting really from a position of strength,” especially compared with shortly after he took office.

Psaki touted Biden’s sweeping $1.2 trillion infrastructure measure — a campaign promise that he signed into law Monday on the White House South Lawn — noting that it marks the first time in 20 years that the United States “will be investing more in infrastructure than China, and that is going to strengthen our competition at home, in addition to putting millions of people to work.”

She also pointed to Biden’s recent trip abroad — to the Group of 20 summit in Rome and the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland — as an example of the president’s strategy for handling China through building the United States’ global alliances, especially with European partners.

“We have made enormous strides in building those relationships, including on the president’s trip just two weeks ago, where he had a range of conversations,” Psaki said.

Still, the stakes of the summit were high. In his opening remarks, Biden told Xi that the U.S.-China bilateral relationship “seems to me to have a profound impact not only in our countries but quite frankly the rest of the world,” telling his counterpart that the two men had a responsibility not just to their people but to the world.

“That’s why we believe — and you and I have talked about this — all countries have to play by the same rules of the road, why the United States is always going to stand up for our interests and values, and those of our allies and partners,” Biden said.

Other top administration officials held multiple conversations with their Chinese counterparts to prepare for the summit. On Saturday, for instance, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, on rising tensions over Taiwan, expressing in a call concerns about Beijing’s “continued military, diplomatic and economic pressure” against the self-governing island.

Yet the United States and China have found common cause on climate, with the two countries — which lead the globe in emitting greenhouse gases — pledging last week at the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow to work together on slowing global warming.

The Chinese president recently tightened his grip on power in Beijing with a new resolution that bolsters his position, allowing him to stay in his role until at least 2027 — a development that U.S. officials said made the direct discussion between Biden and Xi on Monday all the more critical.

The meeting began Monday almost exactly on schedule, at 7:46 p.m. Eastern time and ended at 11:24 p.m. The two communicated via interpreters.

Among the Chinese officials calling in from the Great Hall of the People in Beijing were Wang, economics czar and trade negotiator Liu He, and senior diplomat Yang Jiechi, as well as Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng and Ding Xuexiang, director of the general office of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, a top political body, who is considered part of Xi’s inner circle. Biden administration attendees included Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Monday’s virtual meeting between the two leaders marked the third direct conversation since Biden took office in January; the last two discussions were over the phone, most recently on Sept. 9. Xi has not left China since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The relationship between the two men stretches back nearly a decade, to when Biden was vice president under President Barack Obama. Psaki stressed that the leaders’ rapport allows Biden “a level of candor, to be direct, not to hold back.”

Xi, Psaki added, is someone with whom Biden “can raise directly areas where we have concern, whether it’s security issues, whether it’s economic issues, whether it is human rights issues, and he will certainly do that this evening during the call, but he will also look for areas where we can work together and where there are areas where there is a cohesion of opportunity moving forward.”

Still, Psaki made clear that the relationship has its limits. In 2013, during a trip that Biden took to Asia, Xi welcomed the U.S. vice president as “my old friend” — a descriptor Biden rejected when asked about it in June, noting pointedly: “Let’s get something straight. We know each other well; we’re not old friends. It’s just pure business.”

Asked Monday about Biden’s June assessment, Psaki said she could confirm that the president “still does not consider him an old friend, so that remains consistent.”

Yet as the summit began, Xi seemed determined to reiterate his camaraderie with Biden — reviving what, depending on one’s perspective, is either a term of endearment or an unwelcome moniker.

“Good to see you, Mr. President and your colleagues,” Xi said, through an interpreter. “It’s the first time for us to meet virtually. Although it’s not as good as a face-to-face meeting, I’m very happy to see my old friend.”

Lily Kuo reported from Taipei.