Don’t play with fire over Taiwan, Xi warns Biden during phone call
President Xi Jinping, of China, has warned US President Joe Biden against ‘‘playing with fire’’ over Taiwan amid tension heightened by a planned visit to the self-governing island by Nancy Pelosi, the most senior Democrat in Congress.
Chinese state media said Xi had told Biden that the US should abide by the principle that Taiwan was a renegade province. Xi stressed that China opposed Taiwanese independence and the interference of external forces.
Biden, who has expressed his own reservations about Pelosi’s plan, reiterated America’s ‘‘One China’’ policy, which recognises Beijing as the sole Chinese government and acknowledges its claims to Taiwan.
He has, however, made recent public remarks that the US would help to defend Taiwan.
‘‘Those who play with fire will only get burnt,’’ Chinese state media quoted Xi as telling Biden. ‘‘[We] hope the US side can see this clearly.’’
It was stronger language than Xi used during his last conversation with Biden in November. ‘‘The position of the Chinese government and people on the Taiwan issue is consistent,’’ Xi said. ‘‘It is the firm will of the over 1.4 billion Chinese people to firmly safeguard China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.’’
The White House played down the exchange and restated America’s long-held policy of strategic ambiguity. ‘‘On Taiwan, President Biden underscored that the policy has not changed and that the United States strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,’’ it said.
The talks were thought to have included US calls for a price cap on Russian oil to punish Moscow for its war in Ukraine. China has blamed Nato and the US for triggering the Russian invasion but the US does not believe that Xi is supplying arms and ammunition to Russia after a warning by Biden of the ‘‘consequences’’ of such support.
US officials said they saw the exchange as another chance to manage competition between the world’s two largest economies. Relations have been increasingly clouded by tension over Taiwan, which Xi has vowed to reunite with the mainland by force if necessary.
While Washington does not have official relations with Taiwan, it is obliged by US law to provide the island with the means to defend itself and pressure has been mounting in Congress for more explicit support.
‘‘This is about keeping the lines of communication open with the president of China, one of the most consequential bilateral relationships that we have . . . around the world, because it touches so much,’’ John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, said before the call.
Pelosi has not set a date for her visit. The White House has said the final decision on going is up to her but Biden said last week: ‘‘I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now. But I don’t know what the status of it is.’’
Mike Pompeo, President Trump’s second secretary of state, who visited Taiwan in March and believes that the US should establish diplomatic relations with it, tweeted: ‘‘Nancy, I’ll go with you. I’m banned in China, but not freedom-loving Taiwan. See you there!’’
Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, has condemned as ‘‘unsafe’’ and ‘‘unprofessional’’ an encounter between a Chinese fighter jet and a US special operations C-130 aircraft in the South China Sea last month.
‘‘We’ve seen an alarming increase in the number of unsafe aerial intercepts and confrontations at sea by [People’s Liberation Army] aircraft and vessels,’’ Austin said last month. ‘‘This should worry us all.’’
Last month President Tsai Ingwen, of Taiwan, welcomed a delegation of former US officials from Biden, including Mike Mullen, a retired admiral and former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and Michele Flournoy, who served as under-secretary of defence for policy in the Obama administration.
The Pentagon has sent an aircraft carrier to the South China Sea but said this was part of ‘‘scheduled operations’’.