Roving Periscope: Biden, Xi ‘break ice’, weigh each other

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: They finally met on Monday for three hours, even if virtually, broke the ice to end frosty relations and ended up weighing each other, inconclusively.

Ever since Joe Biden became the US President in January 2021, he has had no face-to-face meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The last time they spoke with each other was via telephone in September 2021, in which Xi ruled out a face-to-face Summit unless the US addressed China’s ‘pending issues’ beforehand.

On Monday, Biden smiled broadly as Xi appeared on a large screen in the White House conference room, the media reported.

“At least they are talking,” economist Wellian Wiranto from Singapore’s OCBC Bank wrote during the talks. “That seems to be the main expectation by global markets for any concrete outcome or a lack thereof.”

President Biden tried to push his Chinese counterpart on Beijing’s human rights practices, while Xi Jinping warned China would respond to any provocations on Taiwan, official reports said on Tuesday.

Both sides described as ‘frank and direct’ their conversation, as an attempt to lower the temperatures and avoid conflict.

The conversation yielded no immediate results but gave Biden and Xi an opportunity to nudge their relations away from icy confrontation,  the media reported.

After the talks, sharp differences in Taiwan remained between the two countries.

While Biden reiterated US’s long-standing support for the “One China” policy under which it officially recognizes Beijing, rather than Taipei, he also said he “strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” the White House said.

Xi reiterated that those in Taiwan who seek independence, and their supporters in the US, are “playing with fire,” Xinhua said.

“China is patient and seeks peaceful reunification with great sincerity and effort, but if Taiwan secessionists provoke, or even cross the red line, we will have to take decisive measures.”

According to a US official, “there was nothing new established as guard rails or any other understandings” on Taiwan, though President Biden raised “very clear concerns.”

Xi objects to Washington’s efforts to carve out more space for Taiwan in the global system, and recent comments by Biden that the US would defend Taiwan in certain cases also inflamed tensions.

China claims the self-ruled island as its own. Beijing has vowed to bring the island under Chinese control, by force if necessary. Recently, Chinese defense aircraft violated Taiwan’s airspace repeatedly to ‘threaten’ it.

But Taiwan is treading carefully. It’s Foreign Ministry said it hoped that China could assume its “common responsibility” to maintain peace across the Taiwan Strait and resolve differences through dialogue.

The US President also raised issues which Beijing claims are its ‘domestic concerns’, including human rights violations in Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang, where Beijing’s policies face frequent condemnation by foreign rights groups.

Among the issues that they discussed included North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, global energy markets, trade and competition, climate, military issues, the pandemic, and other areas where they often disagree.

President Xi Jinping, who just got an unprecedented third term, has not ventured out of China for almost two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic, reports about his health issues, and the mounting challenges at home on different fronts, including disaffection in the ruling Communist Party.

According to a US official, Biden and Xi had a “healthy debate,” in which the US President pressed China to fulfill its commitments under a trade negotiated with former President Donald Trump. China has yet to fulfill its commitment to buy USD 200 billion more in US goods and services, but Xi claimed that America is “politicizing” the issue.

They also discussed measures to address global energy supplies, according to US officials. China said Xi agreed to upgrade a “fast track lane” for US business officials to come to China, which is viewed as Beijing’s delaying tactics.