Washington
CNN
—
President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, the first meeting between the leaders since their historic face-to-face summit in November, with U.S. and Chinese officials looking to ease tensions between the two superpowers. This is the latest result of our ongoing efforts.
This call comes amid intense global turmoil. Topics of discussion included the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine, as well as North Korea's nuclear capabilities. Other issues that have strained U.S.-China relations also surfaced, including Taiwan, China's recent provocations in the South China Sea, and Beijing's human rights abuses.
The two leaders also discussed a number of issues where U.S. and Chinese officials believe there is scope for cooperation, including counternarcotics, the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence, and climate change, according to a White House statement.
The White House said the hour-and-45-minute meeting was “candid and constructive” on a range of issues on which the two leaders agreed and disagreed. Biden stressed the need to maintain “peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait and also expressed concern about China's support for Russia's defense industry, the White House said.
Biden also pointed to concerns about China's trade strategies, which the White House says are harming American workers. He stressed that he would do whatever is necessary to prevent the use of the weapon to undermine national security.
“The two leaders welcomed continued efforts to maintain open communication channels and responsibly manage the relationship through high-level diplomacy and working-level consultations in the coming weeks and months,” the statement said. said, referring to Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China. .
Biden also expressed concern about TikTok, which is owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Biden discussed the House-passed bill mandating the separation of TikTok from ByteDance, emphasizing that it is a U.S. national security issue.
The meeting between Biden and Xi represents a fulfillment of a simple promise Biden made publicly after spending several hours with Xi last fall in Woodside, California. This means that from now on the two leaders will pick up the phone and call each other. It is often aimed at preventing potentially dangerous misunderstandings between the two most powerful countries in the world.
A senior administration official who previewed the call said the phrase Biden uttered after the summit with Xi came despite significant efforts by both countries last year to ease historically high tensions in U.S.-China relations. immediately caught my attention. Still operational: “Trust, but verify.”
“I don't think we take the Chinese at their word when they say they will or won't do something. As the president says, verify it,” officials said. told CNN when asked about President Xi's pledge that the Chinese government would not interfere in the 2024 US election. “We will continue to examine the results we have seen, the actions we have seen, and highlight and advocate what our concerns are.”
The difficulties arose after Biden, after emphasizing the constructive nature of his talks with Xi at the November summit, told a CNN reporter that he would continue to call the Chinese leader a dictator. power relationships were emphasized. The label, which Biden had previously used to describe Xi, quickly drew the ire of Beijing and led to an awkward end to a key meeting between the two leaders.
The Biden administration will continue to emphasize to Beijing the U.S.'s grave concerns about China's efforts to hack U.S. critical infrastructure, the official said.
CNN exclusively reported in January that Xi told Biden during their November meeting that China would not interfere in the U.S. presidential election, and that assurance was echoed by China's foreign minister and Biden's national security adviser Jake. The report said the statement was made repeatedly to Mr. Sullivan.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi were also scheduled to consider several announcements made at last year's California summit, including resuming communications between the two countries' militaries and pledging to work together to curb fentanyl production. . The meeting was aimed at “reviewing” progress made in these areas over the past year, officials said.
Mr. Biden also announced his commitment in Ukraine during Tuesday's call, following Mr. Xi's recent promise to “strengthen strategic cooperation” between China and Russia in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this year. He was also expected to mention China's support for Russia over the continuation of the war.
And while China has avoided publicly providing lethal aid to Russia in support of its invasion of Ukraine, China's assistance to Russia has allowed it to “rebuild Russia's defense industrial base and effectively The official warned that it was now possible to “backfill trade from partners.”
“Of course, China is a sovereign country and will make its own decisions regarding relations with China, but we are very concerned about the direction of this issue and are confident that it will come up,” the official said. said on Monday.
Biden and Xi last spoke by phone in July 2022.
“We hope that we will have the opportunity to have another face-to-face meeting” in the near future, a senior administration official said.
In a significant sign of the Biden administration's continued engagement with Beijing, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is scheduled to visit China later this week to meet with her Chinese counterpart in her second trip as Treasury secretary.
Yellen will travel to Guangzhou and Beijing to meet with economists, students and members of the business community. Treasury officials told reporters Monday that the administration plans to have a frank discussion about what it sees as “unfair” trade practices from China.
The Treasury secretary has warned loudly about the threat China's overcapacity poses to the global economy, but also warned that cutting off the manufacturing giant would be “disastrous” for the United States.
In addition to Yellen, other U.S. officials have also met with Chinese officials in 2024, demonstrating the importance the administration places on its bilateral relationship with China.
In January, Mr. Sullivan met with the Chinese foreign minister in Bangkok, and in February, Mr. Blinken met with Chinese officials in Munich. A senior administration official told reporters on Monday that Blinken himself planned to visit China “in the coming weeks,” and that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also planned to participate in a telephone conversation with the Chinese defense minister “in the near future.” Told.
This story was updated Tuesday with additional developments.
CNN’s Sam Fossum and Arlette Saenz contributed to this report.
