Xi Jinping warns Joe Biden: ‘Taiwan reunification is unstoppable’
The Chinese leader has warned Joe Biden to ‘stop arming Taiwan’ and insisted Beijing ‘will realise reunification’ with the island.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has warned Joe Biden to “stop arming Taiwan” and said China’s reunification with the self-ruled island was “unstoppable”, as the leaders of the world’s two most powerful nations announced the resumption of routine military dialogue.
In a somewhat rambling press conference in Woodside, California, President Biden played down disagreements between the two nations over the future of Taiwan, the democratic island which China claims as its own.
“We agree that there is a one China policy and that I’m not going to change that... That’s about the extent to which we discussed it,” Mr Biden told assembled reporters and members of his cabinet in the wake of the four hours plus meeting with his Chinese counterpart.
He also doubled down on his earlier controversial remark that the Chinese president was a “dictator”, when asked by a reporter as he was wrapping up his remarks.
“Well, look, he is,” Mr Biden said, adding that “here’s a guy who runs a country that’s a communist country.”
According to a readout from China’s Foreign Ministry issued earlier, Mr Xi’s remarks had been more ominous and emphatic:
“The US side should … stop arming Taiwan, and support China’s peaceful reunification. China will realise reunification, and this is unstoppable,” it said.
The exchange came in a hotly anticipated meeting at a high stakes summit in California, which produced a handful of modest agreements around fentanyl, communication and AI technology, but didn’t appear to defuse increasingly strained relations between the world’s two superpowers.
“We’re in a competitive relationship, China and the United States,” Mr Biden said. “But my responsibility is to make this rational and manageable so it doesn’t result in conflict.
The US president boasted of his achievements in producing the AUKUS security pact and strengthening the Quad group of nations as ways of containing China, mention Australia by name.
Mr Xi and Mr Biden agreed during the summit to restart, after suspension for three years, high-level military-to-military talks, which Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd had publicly hoped would be reinstated to reduce the risk of a misunderstanding leading to war.
They also agreed to set up joint government talks on the use of artificial intelligence, as well as a working group on counternarcotics co-operation at the California summit, Xinhua said.
Mr Xi told Mr Biden that China did not seek to “surpass or unseat the United States” and stressed that “the United States should not scheme to suppress and contain China”.
“China will not follow the old path of colonisation and plunder, nor will it follow the wrong path of hegemony when a country becomes strong,” Mr Xi said, according to Xinhua.
And he warned Washington that Beijing was dissatisfied with sanctions and other measures against its firms.
“US actions against China regarding export control, investment screening and unilateral sanctions seriously hurt China’s legitimate interests,” he said.
“Suppressing China’s science and technology is curbing China’s high-quality development and depriving the Chinese people of their right to development,” he said
The two leaders agreed, too, to take steps to “dramatically” cut the production of ingredients for the drug fentanyl, a senior US administration official said. “They’re taking a number of steps that are designed to dramatically curtail those supplies,” the official told reporters, calling it a “substantial set of steps that the Chinese have agreed to undertake with trying to address fentanyl.”
The meeting began with Mr Biden greeting Mr Xi as he stepped out of a black limousine at the scenic Filoli country estate near San Francisco, before they shared a quick handshake on the front steps.
The two leaders then headed inside for painstakingly choreographed, closed-door talks on issues including Taiwan, sanctions and trade that have roiled relations between the world’s largest economies.
Sitting opposite Mr Xi at a long wooden table inside a frescoed ballroom decorated with US and Chinese flags, Mr Biden opened his remarks by saying that tensions should “not veer into conflict.”
“We’ve known each other for a long time. We haven’t always agreed, which is not a surprise to anyone, but our meetings have always been candid and straightforward and useful,” he said as Mr Xi listened through headphones.
“I think it’s paramount that you and I understand each other clearly, leader to leader, but (with) no misconceptions or miscommunication. We have to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict.” Mr Biden added that they would discuss global challenges including climate change, drugs and artificial intelligence.
Mr Xi responded by saying “conflict and confrontation has unbearable consequences for both sides.”
“For two large countries like China and United States, turning their back on each other is not an option,” he said.
“Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed.”
The last time the two leaders met in person was in Bali in November 2022, and relations nosedived after the United States shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon in February this year.
US officials have played down the chance of major breakthroughs although hoping for an agreement on restoring a hotline between the Chinese and US militaries, along with co-operation on stopping supplies of the drug fentanyl.
But the main goal of the talks – which are taking place at the setting for the famed 1980s US soap opera “Dynasty” – is to restore predictability to the relationship, US officials say.
Mr Biden was to give a solo press conference at 4.15pm (11.15am AEDT) to discuss the Xi meeting, which was being held on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco, the White House said.
The talks, which follow months of delicate diplomatic negotiations, come against the backdrop of a long struggle for global primacy between the United States and an increasingly assertive China.
One of the most sensitive issues is Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy over which Beijing claims sovereignty and which it has not ruled out seizing by force.
Mr Biden was expected to tell Mr Xi that the United States will stick to its “One China” policy that emphasises it does not support Taiwanese independence, but that it will continue to give Taiwan military aid.
“We do not want to see the tensions across the Taiwan Strait evolve into any kind of conflict”, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters hours before the meeting.
Mr Biden was also expected to “raise concerns over human rights in China” including the repression of the Uyghur Muslim minority, added Kirby.
Despite lukewarm expectations, the two countries have trailed a series of possible wins from Mr Xi’s first visit to US soil since he was hosted by then-president Donald Trump in 2017.
There were hopes of “progress” on co-operation to limit Chinese exports of ingredients for fentanyl, the opioid drug sweeping America. The two leaders were additionally expected to discuss the Israel-Hamas conflict and the Ukraine war.
Russia, a partner of China in what Washington sees as a growing authoritarian alliance, welcomed the San Francisco meeting, with the Kremlin calling the talks “important for everyone.” For his part Xi was expected to push for an end to trade curbs and sanctions, with the Chinese economy struggling to shore up growth after its tough zero-Covid policy.
The Chinese leader was to host a dinner with US executives after the summit.
With AFP
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