Real smiles, and red lines, as Xi and Biden meet for three hours
Xi Jinping smiled, and Joe Biden told him, ‘It's just great to see you,’ as the U.S. president put an arm around his Chinese counterpart. They met for about three hours, and Biden says he brought up tough topics.
Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 and Joe Biden met earlier today in Bali, Indonesia, for more than three hours a day before the G20 summit that is set to be fraught with tension over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ahead of their talks, the two leaders smiled and shook hands warmly in front of their national flags at a hotel. “It’s just great to see you,” Biden told Xi, as he put an arm around him before their formal meeting. The only other times the pair have talked this year were a July 28 phone call that lasted about two hours and 20 minutes, and a March 18 video call that was about two hours long.
Xi says Taiwan is a red line, Biden brings up human rights
However, Biden brought up a number of difficult topics during the meeting, according to the White House, including raising U.S. objections to China’s “coercive and increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan,” Beijing’s “non-market economic practices,” and practices in “Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, and human rights more broadly.”
Biden also said he told Xi that the U.S. would enhance its security position in Asia if Beijing is unable to rein in North Korea’s weapons development programs.
In a statement after their meeting, Xi called Taiwan the “first red line” that must not be crossed in U.S.-China relations, Chinese state media said.
Biden said he sought to assure Xi that U.S. policy on Taiwan has not changed, seeking to lower tensions over the self-ruled island. “I do not think there’s any imminent attempt on the part of China to invade Taiwan,” he told reporters.
More jaw-jaw?
Biden and Xi, who have held five phone or video calls since Biden became president in January 2021, last met in person during the Obama administration when Biden was vice president.
Xi said before the meeting the relationship between their two countries was not meeting global expectations. But U.S. officials said there have been quiet efforts by both Beijing and Washington over the past two months to repair relations.
Biden took a number of senior officials with him to Bali, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who told reporters that she hoped the meetings would stabilize Washinton’s relationship with Beijing, and create a “more certain atmosphere” for American businesses.
According to Biden, the U.S. and China have set up a mechanism for more frequent communications and Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China to follow up on discussions, he said.
“I think we understand each other,” Biden said.
Biden had said beforehand he was committed to keeping lines of communication open on a personal and government level.
“As the leaders of our two nations, we share responsibility, in my view, to show that China and the United States can manage our differences, prevent competition from turning into conflict, and to find ways to work together on urgent global issues that require our mutual cooperation,” Biden said in remarks in front of reporters.
The missing guest
Conspicuous by his absence was Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin said he was “too busy” to attend, so Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is in Bali instead. Nonetheless, the war in Ukraine is likely to be a major topic at the G20 summit.
The topic was not mentioned in reports and readouts from the Xi-Biden meeting, but at the just-concluded East Asia Summit in Cambodia over the weekend, Chinese Premier Lǐ Kèqiáng 李克强 emphasized the “irresponsibility” of nuclear threats, suggesting China was uncomfortable with Russia’s nuclear rhetoric, according to a Biden administration official, who declined to be named. He also said that he thinks “there is undeniably a discomfort in Beijing about what we’ve seen in terms of reckless rhetoric and activity on the part of Russia.”
Readouts and media commentary:
- Xi, Biden hold candid, in-depth exchange of views on bilateral ties, major global issues / Xinhua
- President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden in Bali / China Foreign Ministry
- 习近平抵达巴厘岛出席二十国集团领导人第十七次峰会 / China Foreign Ministry
- Remarks by President Biden in a press conference | Bali, Indonesia / White House
- For Biden and Xi, a long relationship with rising mutual suspicion / NYT (paywall)
- Biden and Xi meet in Bali as US-China ties sour / BBC
- Biden and Xi try to steady collapsing US-China relations in first meeting / FT (paywall)
