Canada: Pope's apology to Indigenous not enough
WASHINGTON DC: President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping held the fifth conversation of their presidencies on Thursday, speaking for more than two hours as they chart the future of their complicated relationship at a time of simmering economic and geopolitical tensions.
The call began at 8:33 a.m. EDT and ended at 10:50 a.m. EDT, according to the White House. It took place as Biden aims to find new ways to work with the rising global power as well as strategies to contain China's influence around the world. Differing perspectives on global health, economic policy and human rights have long tested the relationship with China's refusal to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine adding further strain.
"The two heads of state had in-depth communication and exchanges on China-US relations and issues of mutual concern," China Central Television reported on its website.
The latest pressure point has been House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's potential visit to Taiwan, the island that governs itself democratically and receives informal defensive support from the US, but which China considers part of its territory. Beijing has said it would view such a trip as a provocation, a threat US officials are taking with heightened seriousness in light of Russia's incursion into Ukraine.
"If the US insists on going its own way and challenging China's bottom line, it will surely be met with forceful responses, Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, told reporters earlier this week. All ensuing consequences shall be
QUEBEC CITY: The Canadian government made clear Wednesday that Pope Francis' apology to Indigenous peoples for abuses in the country's church-run residential schools didn't go far enough, suggesting that reconciliation over the fraught history is still very much a work in progress.
The official government reaction came as Francis arrived in Quebec City for meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Governor General Mary Simon at her Quebec residence, the hilltop Citadelle fortress, on the second leg of borne by the US."
Pelosi would be the highest-ranking US elected official to travel to Taiwan since Republican Newt Gingrich visited the island in 1997 when he was House speaker.
Biden last week told reporters that US military officials believed it was not a good idea for the speaker to visit the island at the moment.
John Kirby, a US national security spokesman, said
Francis' week-long visit to Canada. The government's criticisms echo those of survivors and concern Francis' omission
Wednesday that it was important for Biden and Xi to regularly touch base.
"The president wants to make sure that the lines of communication with President Xi remain open because they need to, Kirby told reporters at a White House briefing. There are issues where we can cooperate with China on, and there are issues where obviously there are friction and tension.
Biden and Xi last spoke in March, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"This is one of the most consequential bilateral relationships in the world today, with ramifications well beyond both individual countries, Kirby said.
The conversation comes as Biden has moved to shift US reliance off Chinese manufacturing, including Senate passage Wednesday of legislation to encourage semiconductor companies to build more hightech plants in the US.
It took place as Biden aims to find new ways to work with the rising global power as well as strategies to contain China's influence around the world
of any reference to the sexual abuse suffered by Indigenous children in the schools, as well as his refusal to name the Catholic
Church as an institution bearing any responsibility.
Francis has said he is on a penitential pilgrimage to atone for the church's role in the residential school system, in which generations of Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their homes and forced to attend church-run, government-funded boarding schools t o assimilate them into Christian, Canadian society. The Canadian government has said physical and sexual abuse were rampant at the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages.