WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping by phone on Wednesday night for the first time since he took office, the White House said.
The White House said in a statement that Biden raised “fundamental concerns” about “coercive and unfair economic practices, repression in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang and increasingly aggressive actions in the region, including towards Taiwan”.
The statement said the leaders also discussed combating the Covid-19 pandemic and “the common challenges of global health security, climate change and preventing the proliferation of weapons”.
Officials said Biden also plans to express his hope that the two leaders can cooperate on issues such as nuclear non-proliferation and climate change.
Biden does not yet plan to raise tariffs on China that were imposed by the Trump administration, senior government officials said before the call, and he is unlikely to reduce the US military presence in Asia, like former President Donald Trump threatened to do.
The link between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies, which took place three weeks after Biden’s inauguration, follows a review of the central elements of US policy towards China during the Trump administration and extensive consultation with America’s allies, officials said. . One described Biden as being “in a strong position” to have a substantive conversation with Xi.
Officials said the call was intended to signal a new U.S. strategy that maintains a basic tenet of the Trump administration’s policy – intense competition – but takes a radically different approach.
“We saw what the Trump administration did over four years and found merit in the basic proposal for intense strategic competition with China and the need to engage in it vigorously, systematically, in all instruments of our government and in all instruments of our power, “said a senior administration official. “But we found profound problems with the way the Trump administration handled this competition.”
Officials said a difference in Biden’s approach would be the emphasis on engaging with US allies, both in Europe and in the Asia-Pacific region. Biden is expected to participate, for example, in international forums for countries in the region, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, and the East Asian Summit, although it is not clear whether his appearances would be virtual due to the pandemic. Former President Barack Obama regularly attended the ASEAN summit, for example, but Trump skipped it after his first year in office.
A second senior government official said that America’s partners in Asia expressed concern about recent U.S. actions, including the unpredictability of the Trump administration and its “strange interactions with North Korea”.
The authorities were also adamant that Biden’s China policy is not a continuation of Trump’s, saying that he was not criticizing the harshness of Trump’s approach, but rather “that he was doing it alone while fighting our allies and partners “.
The policy review towards China continues in several areas, including a Department of Defense effort announced on Wednesday and a study of the Trump administration’s tariffs.
Biden will decide on tariffs after extensive consultations with agencies in his government and with US partners in Asia and Europe – which a senior government official said “will take some time”.
“There will be changes in trade policy towards China,” said the official. “And in the meantime, we have not suspended tariffs.”
Among the policies the government plans to continue is to further restrict China’s access to certain types of sensitive technology. Officials said further restrictions on these exports would be coordinated with US allies.
Officials said Biden did not plan to raise the question of Beijing hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Biden first met Xi as vice president at a time when it was clear that Xi would rise to the presidency. A senior government official said Biden answered the phone “practical, tough-headed and clear-eyed.”
“He has obviously spent a lot of time with Xi Jinping over the years,” said one of the senior government officials. “The two leaders know each other very well.”
The strategy that Biden plans to adopt, the official said, “will not unfold over days, weeks or even months. It will unfold over the years.”
“This does not mean that there is no urgency,” said the official. “There is urgency and we are acting urgently. But it also means that we need to continue with this and play the long game.”
