Joe Biden, the President of the United States, has asserted that his summit meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping has obtained significant progress, including agreements on limiting narcotics trafficking, restoring military lines of communication, and talking about the global threats posed by artificial intelligence.
However, it was unclear yet what will be the future of Taiwan, after more than four hours of talks in a mansion outside San Francisco, which Xi Jinping reportedly told Joe Biden was “the biggest, most potentially dangerous issue in US-China relations”.
“Xi is a dictator”
Furthermore, Biden himself threatened to undo some of the bridge-building at the summit, the first between the two leaders for a year, with an answer to a reporter’s question at the end of a press conference, in which he said that he still looked on Xi as a dictator.
Biden said, “Look, he is a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that’s based on a form of government different than ours.”
The narrative of the summit from China’s foreign ministry was also varied, portraying Xi as having taken a challenging line, over Taiwan in particular.
“US should support China not Taiwan”
According to Beijing’s account, Xi told Biden, “The US side should … stop arming Taiwan, and support China’s peaceful reunification. China will realize reunification, and this is unstoppable.”
“Meeting was productive”
Apart from his spontaneous dictator comment, Biden had been mainly positive about the meeting, pointing out the two leaders had known each other a long time but this meeting was “among the most constructive and productive we’ve had”.
“We’ve made some important progress I believe,” Biden said, pointing to a Chinese agreement to restrain trafficking in the precursors and production equipment used in the production of the drug fentanyl, which has become the greatest killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 49.
The restoration of military-to-military contacts was “critically important” in declining accidents and harmful miscalculations, Biden said. He said the beginning of talks about AI and security represented “tangible steps in the right direction to determine … what’s dangerous and what’s acceptable”.
Comparison with last meeting
A senior US official said that, if you compared to the previous meeting between the two leaders, in Bali, a year and a day earlier, in the immediate aftermath of the Covid pandemic: “This was much more back and forth, give and take. They sat across from each other, just six or seven feet, they could reach across the table. You could see the look on the other person’s face.”
“President Biden did not pull punches. He was respectful but very clear,” the official added.
Xi had said, before the talks, “Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed.”
“US actions hurt China”
According to the Chinese foreign ministry account, Xi made clear to Biden that China was disappointed about US sanctions in the hi-tech sector.
Xi reportedly said, “US actions against China regarding export control, investment screening, and unilateral sanctions seriously hurt China’s legitimate interests. Suppressing China’s science and technology is curbing China’s high-quality development and depriving the Chinese people of their right to development.”
However, according to a senior US administration official, “President Xi made very clear in his talks that he certainly at this time wants to stabilize the ties with the United States.
The official said, “He also revealed quite clearly a deep knowledge of some of the debates about China in the United States and I think in some respects, he’s quite sensitive to some of those discussions.”
At one point in the discussions, Biden and Xi took a walk together in the grounds of the Filoli estate, 50km south of San Francisco.
Biden wished Xi’s wife
Biden wished Xi’s wife, Peng Liyuan, a happy birthday because they both share the same birthday date, 20 November. Xi acknowledged being embarrassed as he had been working so tough he had forgotten his wife’s birthday was in the coming week, and he thanked Biden for reminding him.
Competitive Relationship
Biden said after the summit he realized that the two nations were in a competitive relationship but he was committed to addressing the competition responsibly “so it doesn’t veer into conflict”, and to uncovering an agreement where their interests coincide, as in the case of fentanyl.
Fentanyl
Biden said the discharge of processed fentanyl from China to the West had been restrained some years ago, but the traffic in the raw materials for making the drug had continued.
Biden said, “Today with this new understanding, we’re taking action to significantly reduce the flow of precursor chemicals and pill presses from China to the western hemisphere. It’s going to save lives and I appreciate President Xi’s commitment on this issue.”
Military Contacts
Biden said, on the restoration of military contacts, “We’re back to direct, open, clear communications.”
After an entire lack of such contacts for several years, a senior US official said that the Chinese governments had agreed on Wednesday to three levels of communications.
Summit’s Conclusion
Biden admitted he had reached no agreement with the Chinese president about the fate of US nationals imprisoned or encountering exit bans by China. And it was also apparent there was no progress on Taiwan, after what US officials defined as a “substantial exchange” about the island.
The senior American official said, “I think President Xi made clear the continuing concerns, underscored that this was the biggest, most potentially dangerous issue in US-China relations.” Xi reportedly urged that Beijing’s intention was for peaceful reunification, “but then moved immediately to conditions that the potential use of force could be utilized”.
The official said, “I think President Biden responded very clearly that the longstanding position of the United States was a determination to maintain peace and stability, that we believed in the status quo, and that we asked the Chinese to respect the electoral process in Taiwan.”
“Look, peace is all well and good, but at some point, we need to move towards resolution more generally,” according to the US version, Xi responded.
Xi said he had seen reports and assessments in the US that China was preparing to take military action by a given year, and expressed “exasperation” at such reports, urging that there were no such plans and that no one in the Chinese system had talked to him about them.
