President Biden held telephone talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, which included what the White House described as “candid and constructive” discussions on Chinese coercion of Taiwan and growing tensions between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea.
The call was billed as a follow-up to two face-to-face meetings between Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi, one in Bali, Indonesia, in 2022 and a second on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in California last November. Both sides have attempted to lower the temperature on the bilateral relationship, which saw rising friction throughout much of 2023.
“President Biden emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the rule of law and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea,” the White House said in a statement shortly after the call ended.
Mr. Biden talked to his Chinese counterpart about both “areas of cooperation and areas of difference,” the White House readout said.
Mr. Biden raised U.S. concerns about rising Chinese military activity near Taiwan, an island democracy that Beijing has vowed one day to take over, including daily Chinese warplane and warship activities around the island, a senior Biden administration official told reporters in advance of the call.
While saying he prefers peaceful reunification, Mr. Xi has ordered the Chinese military to be ready for action against the island in the coming years.
China’s official Xinhua news service said after the phone call that Mr. Xi had cited “three overarching principles” he said should guide the bilateral relationship: maintaining peace and ruling out a future conflict; restoring “stability” to the relationship and refraining from actions that set ties back; and “credibility” in honoring recent commitments designed to ease bilateral strains.
Mr. Biden raised the prospect of deeper cooperation in countering Chinese sales of chemicals used in producing deadly fentanyl and renewed direct communications between the American military and the People’s Liberation Army.
The two leaders also addressed proposed discussions on the risks posed by artificial intelligence and climate change, as well as the need to promote more U.S.-Chinese people exchanges.
Mr. Biden raised U.S. concerns over China’s support to Russia’s defense industrial base as it pursues its war in Ukraine and the impact on transatlantic security. The president also said the United States remains committed to the “complete denuclearization” of North Korea.
Beijing’s trade practices and non-market economic practices also were topics of discussion. China, for its part, has complained about U.S. tariffs on its exports and new restrictions on U.S. tech sales to Chinese companies. The call came as Congress is debating a forced sale or outright ban of the popular Chinese-owned TikTok app, a move Beijing has sharply criticized.
“The president emphasized that the United States will continue to take necessary actions to prevent advanced U.S. technologies from being used to undermine our national security, without unduly limiting trade and investment,” the White House statement said.
China’s state-affiliated Global Times, in its account of the phone call, said Mr. Xi pointedly said China was ready to respond to what it considers economic coercion from Washington.
“If the U.S. side is willing to seek mutually beneficial cooperation and share in China’s development dividends, it will always find China’s door open,” the news website reported of Mr. Xi’s remarks. “But if it is adamant on containing China’s high-tech development and depriving China of its legitimate right to development, China is not going to sit back and watch.”
As part of its policy of seeking to manage competition with China and prevent a conflict, Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi said they welcomed better communications and planned working-level consultations in the coming weeks.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, viewed as among the administration’s more pro-China officials, is set to visit China in the coming days. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to China in the coming weeks.
A senior Biden administration official who briefed reporters on the call in advance said the call is the first time the two leaders have spoken by phone since July 2022.
The two summits and ongoing dialogues at senior levels are seeking to prevent an “unintended conflict,” the official said, speaking on background.
Mr. Biden was said to want to see “substantive action” in curbing imports of fentanyl precursors, noting that some progress has been made in dealing with the problem, the official said. However, the official said that “the drug trade is evolving,” suggesting that chemical precursor shipments were continuing.
Federal authorities say drug overdose deaths from fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans in the past several years.
On military communications, the official noted that Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with a Chinese military leader in December, and a session of the so-called military maritime consultative commission will meet this week in Hawaii.
China has been aggressively using its naval and coast guard vessels to prevent the Philippines government from resupplying a grounded ship used as a military base in the contested Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. Adm. John Aquilino, commander of the Indo-Pacific Command, warned in congressional testimony last month that the increasing Chinese aggression could lead Manila to invoke its defense treaty with the United States if a Filipino dies in a maritime incident.
U.S. officials described the administration’s policy toward China as a combination of “invest, align, and compete.”
Another issue Mr. Biden planned to raise during the call is Chinese election interference in the U.S. presidential election, the official said.
“All of this is focused on de-risking, not decoupling,” the official said, noting that the Biden-Xi call is “more of check-in” between the two leaders rather than a more substantive summit meeting.
China is viewed as America’s top geopolitical rival, so relations with the Asian superpower will be featured in Mr. Biden’s rematch this year with former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.