Joe Biden and Xi Jinping used their first in-person meeting as leaders to signal a desire to improve US-China ties after relations between the two powers plunged to a multi-decade low.
With Taiwan tensions hanging over the meeting, the two leaders agreed that senior officials would “maintain communication” on a range of transnational issues, including climate change, global economic stability and food security, a White House readout of the meeting said. The US president added that Antony Blinken, secretary of state, would visit China for talks.
At a news conference after the meeting, which lasted three hours, Biden said he told Xi that US policy on Taiwan had not changed “at all” and that Washington remained committed to a peaceful resolution of tensions. But the White House said that Biden had raised concerns in private with Xi about China’s “increasingly aggressive” actions towards Taiwan.
The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement that Xi warned Biden that Taiwan was at the “very core of China’s core interests” and that the issue was “the first red line that must not be crossed in China-US relations”.
Biden said he was “not looking for conflict” and that he wanted to manage US-China competition “responsibly”. He also stressed that “there need not be a new cold war”.
Relations between Washington and Beijing hit a new low in August when China shut some diplomatic and military channels after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan.
Beijing also suspended a range of communications with Washington on issues such as climate change and judicial co-operation, as the Taiwan crisis raised fears that an accidental military incident could trigger a larger conflict between the world’s two largest economies.
But a more positive note was struck on Monday with the leaders’ first in-person meeting, which followed five previous discussions on the phone and via video conference.
“In several months, we may look back on the Biden-Xi meeting as the first signs of an inflection point that began to decelerate the spiral towards conflict,” said Jessica Chen Weiss, a China expert at Cornell University.
“It’s encouraging that both sides agreed to empower senior officials to develop foundational principles for the relationship and working groups to make progress on specific issues,” Chen Weiss added.
While Biden’s public remarks after the meeting were diplomatic, the White House said he also expressed concern about Chinese policy on Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
US officials have increasingly warned about possible Chinese military action against Taiwan but Biden told reporters after the meeting that he did not believe Beijing was planning an “imminent” invasion of Taiwan.
He also said the two leaders had discussed the Russian invasion of Ukraine and “reaffirmed our shared belief that the threat or the use of nuclear weapons is totally unacceptable”. However, the Chinese foreign ministry made no mention of the possible use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine in its statement after the meeting.
John Lee, a China expert at the Hudson Institute, cautioned that the US should not take Xi at his word when he made promises to Washington.
“Any verbal agreement with Xi should not be relied on or taken seriously given the Chinese leader’s long record of saying one thing and doing something else,” said Lee, adding that Biden should use his attendance at the G20 to work with allies and partners to constrain China.
The Biden-Xi talks were held on the island of Bali on the eve of the G20 summit, which is being hosted by Indonesia.
They came as CIA director Bill Burns warned Russia against using nuclear weapons in the first known in-person meeting between senior officials of the two countries since President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Burns delivered his warning at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Naryshkin in Ankara, Turkey, on Monday, the US said.
Additional reporting by Kathrin Hille in Taipei