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Joe Biden asserted the United States’ hard line on human rights abuses and regional expansionism in China during his first phone call with President Xi Jinping since taking office.
Xi defended Chinese policies as matters of sovereignty, but told the American leader that the confrontation would be “a disaster,” and called on both sides to restore the means to avoid errors in judgment, according to media reports. ‘State.
The call came just hours after Biden announced that he had created a Pentagon task force on China and that a senior State Department official met in person with the representative of Taiwan in the United States.
US support for Taiwan, which pushes back aggression and threats of “unification” from Beijing, is one of the most sensitive issues in US-China relations and raised by Biden during the appeal.
“I spoke with President Xi today to extend best wishes to the Chinese people for the Lunar New Year,” Biden said. “I also shared concerns about Beijing’s economic practices, human rights violations and Taiwan’s coercion. I told him that I will work with China when it benefits the American people.
An account of the White House conversation said Biden also referred to the crackdown in Hong Kong and human rights abuses in Xinjiang, as well as “China’s increasingly assertive actions in the region. “. They also discussed global health security, climate change and preventing the proliferation of weapons, the White House said.
Chinese state media said the two leaders “exchanged greetings on the Chinese New Year and had an in-depth exchange of views on bilateral relations and major international and regional issues.” Xi also warned Biden to cautiously handle issues such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Xinjiang, which he said were “home affairs” regarding China’s territorial integrity.
A report on the appeal by state media said Xi reiterated that cooperation is “the only right choice” and that the two countries must properly handle disputes constructively.
“Cooperation can help the two nations and the world to accomplish great things, while the confrontation is definitely a disaster,” he said, according to a separate report from the South China Morning Post.
The Pentagon’s new China task force consists of 15 members headed by a senior advisor to department secretary Lloyd Austin. The group will examine US national security and military strategy on China.
The Biden administration has pledged to continue to provide “rock solid” support to Taiwan and has predicted “extreme competition” between the two countries. He suggested building on his familiarity with Xi from his time as vice president.
Ahead of Xi’s call, a senior administration official informed reporters that Biden’s team had “found merit” in the Trump administration’s “basic proposition of intense strategic competition with China … but we found deep issues with the way the Trump administration was operating. this competition, ”Axios reported.
The Trump administration’s relationship with Beijing began warmly, and the White House at the time described Trump’s first telephone with the Chinese leader as “extremely cordial.” However, during his tenure, relations collapsed, with tensions over trade, the pandemic, and China’s crackdown and abuse of human rights and its regional neighbors, including Taiwan, and in the South China Sea. U.S. arms sales to Taiwan increased dramatically under Trump, and as the Chinese military grew and modernized, tensions between the straits increased.
Biden’s administration is reviewing the sanctions and tariffs imposed by Trump, but said it will continue on a harder line than that held during Obama’s tenure. He elevated the six decades-old assurances made with the island government to the same level as the three communiques describing Sino-US relations and the Taiwan Relations Act which requires the United States to provide material support to Taiwan for his self-defense.
The Chinese military reacted aggressively. At the end of last month, it sent more than a dozen fighter jets, bombers and reconnaissance planes to the Taiwan Air Identification Zone for two consecutive days, far more than the usual sorties by two or three planes sent regularly over the past year. It has been widely interpreted as a message to the newly inaugurated Biden.
Earlier Wednesday in Washington, Taiwan’s de facto Ambassador to the United States, Hsiao Bi-khim, said she had met with the acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs and from the Pacific, Sung Kim.
Hsiao said she had a “good meeting” with Kim and her team, “where we discussed many issues of mutual interest, reflecting our strong and broad partnership.”
The State Department office tweeted a photo of the meeting, with the two representatives standing together and wearing face masks.
“The United States is deepening its ties with Taiwan, a leading democracy and an important economic and security partner,” he said on his Twitter account.
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