Biden promises candor, Xi greets ‘old friend’ as U.S.-China talks open

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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese language chief Xi Jinping harassed their duty to the remainder of the world to keep away from battle because the heads of the 2 prime international economies opened their intently watched talks on Monday.

“It appears to me our duty as leaders of China and the USA is to make sure that our competitors between our international locations doesn’t veer into battle, whether or not meant or unintended,” Biden mentioned.

“Simply easy, easy competitors.”

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Calling Biden an “previous good friend,” Xi mentioned the 2 sides should enhance communication and cooperation to resolve the various challenges they face.

Talking via an interpreter, Xi mentioned: “Because the world’s two largest economies and the everlasting members of the U.N. Safety Council, China and the USA want to extend communication and cooperation.”

Biden promised to deal with areas of concern, together with human rights and different points within the Indo-Pacific area, including that “you and I’ve by no means been that formal with each other.”

The talks, which had been initiated by Biden and commenced at 7:46 p.m. on Monday (0046 GMT Tuesday), had been meant to make the connection much less acrimonious https://www.reuters.com/world/china/top-pain-points-between-us-china-xi-biden-meet-2021-11-15. The U.S. president smiled broadly because the Chinese language president appeared on a big display within the convention room.

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The early moments of the 2 leaders’ dialog had been noticed by a small group of reporters with Biden within the White Home’s Roosevelt Room earlier than the heads of state and prime aides spoke privately in a gathering U.S. officers anticipated to stretch for a number of hours.

The 2 sides took a brief break after a virtually two-hour first session, in response to a report from Chinese language state media.

Biden and Xi haven’t had a face-to-face assembly since Biden grew to become president and the final time they spoke it was by way of phone in September.

The US and China disagree on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, commerce and competitors guidelines, Beijing’s increasing nuclear arsenal and its stepped-up stress on Taiwan, amongst different points.

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U.S. officers have downplayed expectations for any concrete agreements between each side, together with on commerce, the place China is lagging in a dedication to purchase $200 billion extra in U.S. items and providers. Not on Biden’s agenda are U.S. tariffs on Chinese language items that Beijing and enterprise teams hope to be scaled again.

The White Home has declined to reply questions on whether or not the USA will ship officers to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. Activists and U.S. lawmakers have urged the Biden administration to boycott the Video games.

“Either side try to ascertain the decision’s purpose as creating stability within the relationship, each via their collegial language and general framing of the dialog and the significance of the connection,” mentioned Scott Kennedy, China knowledgeable at Washington’s Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research.

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“The query is whether or not they’ll attain settlement on something, or at the least, conform to disagree and keep away from escalatory steps.”

COMPETING VISIONS

Xi, waiting for the Olympics and a Communist Get together congress subsequent yr the place he’s anticipated to safe an unprecedented third time period, can also be eager to keep away from heightened tensions with the USA.

However he’s anticipated to push again over Washington’s efforts to carve out more room for Taiwan within the worldwide system. China claims the self-ruled island as its personal. Beijing has vowed to convey the island underneath Chinese language management, by drive if obligatory.

Overseas Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian instructed an everyday briefing on Monday: “It’s hoped that the USA and China will meet one another midway, strengthen dialog and cooperation, successfully handle variations, correctly deal with delicate points, and discover methods of mutual respect and peaceable coexistence.”

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Xi and Biden final week outlined competing visions, with Biden stressing the U.S. dedication to a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” which Washington says faces rising Chinese language “coercion,” whereas Xi warned towards a return to Chilly Warfare tensions.

A tabloid revealed by the ruling Communist Get together’s Individuals’s Day by day on Monday known as Taiwan “the final word crimson line of China.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned final week that Washington and its allies would take unspecified “motion” if China had been to make use of drive to change the Taiwan establishment, additional muddying the long-held U.S. coverage of “strategic ambiguity” as as to whether the USA would reply militarily.

Chinese language Overseas Minister Wang Yi warned Blinken in a name on Saturday towards sending the unsuitable alerts Biden and China’s Xi will maintain digital assembly to Taiwan pro-independence forces.

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Taiwan will not be the one flashpoint. Democrats within the U.S. Congress need Biden to make nuclear danger discount measures with China a prime precedence, after the Pentagon reported that Beijing was considerably increasing its nuclear weapons and missile packages.

Beijing argues its arsenal is dwarfed by these of the USA and Russia, and says it’s prepared for dialog if Washington reduces its nuclear stockpile to China’s degree.

“That is President Biden’s alternative to indicate metal, present power on America’s facet, to make it clear that we’re going to stand by our allies and that we’ll not endorse or condone the malign habits that China has engaged in,” mentioned Republican Senator Invoice Hagerty, who served as ambassador to Japan underneath former President Donald Trump.

(Reporting by Michael Martina, David Brunnstrom, Andrea Shalal, Alexandra Alper, Ben Blanchard, Gabriel Crossley and Trevor Hunnicutt; Writing by Trevor Hunnicutt; Enhancing by Heather Timmons, Michael Perry and Peter Cooney)