Xi Jinping urges Biden to ‘not turn our backs on each other’

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in California on Wednesday, exchanging handshakes and smiles before embarking on a face-to-face dialogue that both sides hope will stabilize US-China relations.

The US President began his speech by saying that tensions between the two countries “must not escalate into conflict.” The Chairman of the People’s Republic of China responded by saying that “turning our backs on each other is not an option” for the superpowers. “Planet Earth is big enough for two countries to succeed, and the success of one country is an opportunity for the other,” he said.

Xi Jinping called the US-China relationship “the most important bilateral relationship in the world” and said he and Biden “bear heavy responsibility for the two peoples, for the world and for history.”

“For two large countries like China and the United States, turning their backs on each other is not an option,” he said. “It is impossible for one side to change the other, and conflicts and confrontations have intolerable consequences for both sides.”

The White House later described the meeting as “frank and constructive,” adding that the two leaders discussed “a range of bilateral and global issues and exchanged views on areas of disagreement.”

This meeting was the first time the two leaders met face to face in the past year, The Guardian notes. It comes just after the two countries released a joint climate statement, with new agreements expected to be signed at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in San Francisco in the coming days.

Xi Jinping and Biden met a day after their countries vowed to work more closely to combat global warming, declaring the climate crisis “one of the greatest challenges of our time.” The announcement further fuels hopes that the two countries can mend relations after years of turmoil over issues such as trade, human rights and the future of Taiwan.

In a joint statement following climate talks in the US, they vowed to make progress at the crucial UN climate summit starting later this month in Dubai and reaffirmed their commitment to the 2015 Paris climate agreement’s goals of keeping global warming “well below” 2 °C, continuing efforts to limit the rise to 1.5C.

“The United States and China recognize that the climate crisis is increasingly affecting countries around the world,” the statement said. “They will work together… to meet one of the greatest challenges of our time for current and future generations of humanity.”

The Xi-Biden summit was heralded by US officials as an opportunity to reduce friction in what many see as the world’s most dangerous rivalry. It took place against the backdrop of a series of agreements aimed at establishing a framework for relations. In addition to the climate agreement, which was released on Tuesday, there were expectations that Beijing and Washington would reach an agreement to control the flow of fentanyl from China to the United States.

The US also went into the summit with hopes of resuming military dialogues with Beijing, which had been largely frozen since then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last year.

With elections in Taipei in January expected to strain cross-strait relations, Taiwan has figured high on the agenda for talks between Xi Jinping and Biden. Beijing is seeking to challenge what it sees as a troubling shift in the Biden administration toward greater support for the island, which China claims as part of its territory, observers have predicted.

Ahead of the summit, Chinese state media took a warmer tone towards the United States, The Guardian notes. The official Communist Party newspaper, People’s Daily, said in its overseas edition: “The Chinese people will never forget an old friend, and this is an important message we want to convey to the American people.” The often confrontational Global Times also called for cooperation between the two countries.

Xi Jinping arrived in the US for his first visit in six years on Tuesday and waved from the top of the passenger ramp attached to his Air China plane before descending to meet US officials waiting on the San Francisco runway. including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns.

He then got into his limousine, with the Chinese name Hongq (“Red Flag”), and drove from the airport to the city where demonstrations had gathered both in support and against his visit.

Ahead of the talks, Biden said his goal in talks with Xi Jinping would be to improve relations with China after a period of tense ties. He said he would seek to resume normal contacts between the two superpowers, including military-to-military contacts. White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Biden and Xi Jinping will also discuss the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza, as well as Washington’s efforts to support Ukraine.

Speaking hours before Xi Jinping arrived, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressed ministers from 21 APEC member states and stressed that the US believes in “a region where economies are free to choose their own path… where goods, ideas, people move legally and freely.” .

Blinken did not mention China in his remarks, but his language echoed U.S. rhetoric in recent years in which Washington has accused Beijing of bullying small countries in the Indo-Pacific region and trying to undermine what the United States and its allies call the existing rules-based order.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, who opened the APEC ministerial session with Blinken, said the meeting in San Francisco came at a time of “great uncertainty and challenge” for the region. She noted rising geopolitical tensions, fragile supply chains and the worsening climate crisis.

Biden said the United States does not want to separate from China, but wants to change the economic relationship for the better. His administration has moved to “de-risk” some critical U.S. supply chains from China as economic and military competition between the two countries has increased.

But he was careful to reassure countries in the region, including China, that the US was not seeking complete economic separation, raising concerns among Washington’s partners and allies about a superpower showdown that would upend the global economy, The Guardian notes.

Read also: Biden, who called Xi Jinping a “dictator,” risked nullifying the results of the summit