Biden, Xi seek to avoid conflict in hours-long summit talks
The 3-hour talk was aimed at avoiding conflict between the rival superpowers
Nusa Dua, Indonesia - Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping ended a landmark summit in Bali, Indone
sia on Monday after three hours of talks aimed at avoiding conflict between the rival superpowers.
Xi and Biden shook hands in front of the US and Chinese flags before starting the long-awaited meeting on the resort island ahead of a Group of 20 summit, following months of tension over Taiwan and other issues.
Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades who is fresh from securing a norm-breaking third term, told Biden that the world has ‘come to a crossroads’.
“The world expects that China and the United States will properly handle the relationship,” Xi
told him. Despite the upbeat public statements, both nations are increasingly suspicious of each other, with the United States fearing that China has stepped up a timeline for seizing Taiwan.
US officials said ahead of the meeting that Biden hoped to set up ‘guardrails’ in the relationship with China and to assess how to avoid ‘red lines’ that could push
the world’s two largest economies into conflict.
The most sensitive issue is Taiwan, the self-governing democracy claimed by China.
The United States has been stepping up support for Taiwan,
while China has ramped up its
threats to seize control of the island. After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei in August, China reacted by staging unprecedented military drills.
On the eve of his talks with Xi, Biden met with Japanese Prime
Minister Fumio Kishida and
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on the sidelines of a
Southeast Asian summit in Cambodia, with the three leaders jointly calling for ‘peace and stability’ on the Taiwan Strait.
Biden is also expected to push China to rein in ally North Korea
after a record-breaking spate of missile tests has raised fears that Pyongyang will soon carry out its seventh nuclear test.
Xi is paying only his second overseas visit since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and will
meet a number of key leaders.
Xi’s last in-person meeting with a US president was in 2019 with Donald Trump, who along with Biden identified China as a top international concern and the only potential challenger to US primacy on the world stage.
And though the meeting is the first time Xi and Biden have met as presidents, the pair have an unusually long history together.
By Biden’s estimation, he spent 67 hours as vice president in person with Xi including on a
2011 trip to China aimed at better understanding China’s thenleader-in-waiting, and a 2017 meeting in the final days of Barack Obama’s administration.
Since entering the White House, Biden has spoken virtually five times with Xi but told him Monday there was ‘no substitute’
for face-to-face discussions.