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WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden held talks with China’s Xi Jinping on Thursday amid growing frustration on the US side that the high-level engagement between the two leaders’ top advisers was largely unsuccessful at first of the Biden Presidency.
Biden launched the appeal with Xi, the second between the two leaders since Biden took office. It comes at a time when there is no shortage of thorny issues between the two nations, including cybersecurity loopholes from China, Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and what the White House has called “coercive and coercive business practices.” unfair ”on the part of the Chinese.
But Biden’s goal with the 90-minute call was less focused on one of those burning issues and instead focused on discussing the way forward for US-China relations after a decidedly rocky start to his tenure. .
The White House said in a statement that “the two leaders had a broad strategic discussion in which they discussed areas where our interests converge and areas where our interests, values and perspectives diverge.”
Chinese state television reported on its website that the two leaders had “candid, thorough and extensive strategic communications,” but gave no details.
The White House hopes the two sides can work together on issues of mutual concern, including climate change and preventing a nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, despite growing differences.
Beijing, however, has pushed back on American pressure and has increasingly suggested it could remain largely uncooperative until Biden reduces criticism on what it sees as Chinese internal affairs.
Almost eight months into his presidency, efforts by Biden and his aides to call China on a litany of concerns while trying to find common ground on other issues has proven to be a heavy strategy. .
Before the call, a senior administration official said the White House was not happy with early engagements with the Chinese.
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said White House officials hoped Xi hearing directly from Biden might prove beneficial.
The White House official said Biden made it clear to Xi that he had no intention of straying from his administration’s policy of pressuring China on human rights, trade and other areas where he believes China is acting outside international standards.
The high level engagement early on was most noticeable with each side blowing the other up with recriminations.
Last week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry that deteriorating US-China relations could undermine cooperation on climate change. Wang told Kerry, who was visiting Tianjin for climate talks with her Chinese counterparts, via video link that such cooperation cannot be separated from the larger relationship and called on the United States to take steps. measures to improve relations, according to the Foreign Ministry.
In July, Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman faced a long list of demands and complaints, including accusations that the United States was trying to contain and suppress development in China. Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng urged the United States “to change its very mistaken mentality and dangerous policy.”
In March, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had heated discussions with Communist Party of China Foreign Chief Yang Jiechi when they met with senior Chinese officials in Anchorage. At that meeting, Yang accused the United States of failing to address its own human rights issues and challenged what he called American hypocrisy.
Administration officials suspect that part of the rhetoric at these high-level meetings was more to perform in front of a national audience through the press than to send a message to the White House. With that in mind, Biden stressed the importance of the ability of two leaders to have private conversations and be clear about their priorities, the administration official said.
Since starting his presidency, Biden has sought to focus more on China, rallying his allies to speak with a more unified voice about Beijing’s human rights record, business practices and behavior. more and more assertive of his army which angered the American allies in the Pacific. He sees Beijing as the United States’ most important economic competitor and a growing concern for national security.
But the president also expressed hope that his long-standing working relationship with Xi, which dates back to when he was Barack Obama’s vice president, could bear fruit in the two countries cooperating on some critical issues. The two spent time on call remembering their travel time together when they were both vice presidents, an administration official said.
The White House said leaders on the call agreed to engage “openly and directly” on issues where nations disagree and there is agreement.
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Associated Press writer Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed reporting.
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