Joe Biden, Xi Jinping clash on phone on eve of US official’s trip to Beijing

U.S. Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping clashed in a phone call on Tuesday over U.S. trade restrictions on technology and Taiwan, but they hope to keep tensions under control and two senior U.S. officials will soon travel to Beijing.

The nearly two-hour phone conversation was the first direct interaction between the two leaders since a November summit in California that saw a marked softening of the long-running rivalry between the world’s two largest economies.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will set off on Wednesday to visit the southern cities of Guangzhou and Beijing, symbols of China’s manufacturing powerhouse, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken will also visit China in the coming weeks, officials said.

“We believe there is no substitute for regular communication at the leadership level in order to effectively manage this complex and often tense bilateral relationship,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters after the call.

U.S. officials said the purpose of the talks was not to manage differences but to resolve them, and the two leaders were open to bitter disagreements.

Xi Jinping accused the United States of creating economic risks through Biden’s blanket ban on high-tech exports to China.

“If the United States insists on suppressing China’s high-tech development and depriving China of its legitimate right to development, we will not stand idly by,” Xi Jinping warned, according to Chinese state media.

Biden rejected his appeal, and the White House said he told him “the United States will continue to take necessary actions to prevent advanced American technologies from being used to undermine our national security without unduly restricting trade and investment.”

Biden has also refused to back down on TikTok, with Congress threatening to ban the Chinese app unless it changes hands. Kirby said Biden insisted he wanted to keep Americans’ data safe.

Unfreeze incentives

Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful leader in decades, has consolidated power at home and taken a tough stance in Asia, cracking down on freedoms in Hong Kong and in recent weeks engaging in a tough confrontation with the Philippines over the South China Sea.

But U.S. observers believe Xi is eager to ease friction with the United States as China faces severe economic headwinds.

At the California summit, he agreed to two key U.S. demands: to limit the precursor chemical used to make fentanyl, the synthetic painkiller behind the U.S. overdose epidemic, and to resume dialogue between the two militaries to combat the overdose epidemic. crisis.

Xi may also believe there are more opportunities to work with Biden, who will face off against Donald Trump, who views China as an old enemy, in the November presidential election.

Biden retained and even accelerated some of Trump’s tough measures but also identified areas of mutual interest, such as combating climate change.

Issue an alert to Taiwan

The White House said Biden pressed Xi Jinping to ensure “peace and stability” across the Taiwan Strait ahead of President-elect Lai Ching-te’s May 20 inauguration.

China has denounced Jimmy Lai, a longtime supporter of Beijing’s claim to an independent identity as an autonomous democracy, but U.S. officials have been cautiously optimistic that China’s pre-inauguration military actions would not go beyond past practices.

Xi Jinping told Biden in a phone call that Taiwan remains an “insurmountable red line” for China, state media reported.

The United States has expressed growing alarm over China’s ongoing actions against the Philippines in the disputed South China Sea.

While maintaining dialogue with China, the Biden administration also attaches great importance to supporting allies.

Amid the diplomatic furor with China, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will pay a state visit to Washington next week, while Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos will also participate in trilateral talks.

Blinken and Yellen will visit China for the second time in less than a year, marking a return to more regular interactions after the coronavirus pandemic and heightened tensions under Trump.

The broad diplomacy contrasts with Biden’s approach to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he has shunned since Moscow invaded Ukraine.

The White House said Biden was concerned about China’s increasing efforts to help Russia rebuild its military industrial base, saying it posed a risk to European security.