Joe Biden affirmed the United States’ hard line on human rights abuses in China and regional expansionism in his first phone call with President Xi Jinping since taking office.
Xi defended China’s policies as issues of sovereignty, but told the US leader that the confrontation would be “a disaster” and called on both sides to re-establish the means to avoid errors of judgment, according to state media.
The call came just hours after Biden’s announcement of a Pentagon task force in China and an official State Department meeting with Taiwan’s representative in the United States.
US support for Taiwan, which is rejecting aggression and threats of Beijing’s “unification”, is one of the most sensitive issues in the US-China relationship, raised by Biden during the call.
“I spoke today with President Xi to offer good wishes to the Chinese people in the lunar new year,” said Biden. “I also shared concerns about Beijing’s economic practices, human rights abuses and Taiwan’s coercion. I told him that I will work with China when it benefits the American people. “
A report from the White House conversation said that Biden also lifted repression in Hong Kong and human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and “China’s increasingly assertive actions in the region”. They also discussed global health security, climate change and preventing the proliferation of weapons, the White House said.
Chinese state-run media said the two leaders “exchanged greetings on the occasion of the Chinese New Year and had a profound exchange of views on bilateral relations and major international and regional issues.” Xi also warned Biden to be cautious about matters such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang, which he said were “internal affairs” about China’s territorial integrity.
A report of the appeal by the state media said that Xi reiterated that cooperation was “the only right choice” and that both countries need to manage disputes constructively.
“Cooperation can help both nations and the world to achieve great things, while the confrontation is definitely a disaster,” he said, according to a separate report from the South China Morning Post.
The Pentagon’s new task force in China consists of 15 members led by a senior adviser to Lloyd Austin, secretary of the department. The group will look at US national security and military strategy in China.
The Biden government has pledged to continue giving “rock-solid” support to Taiwan and has predicted “extreme competition” between the two countries. He suggested that he will use his familiarity with Xi since his time as vice president.
Prior to Xi, a senior administration official informed reporters that Biden’s team had “found merit” in the Trump administration’s “basic proposal of intense strategic competition with China … but we found deep problems in the way the Trump administration that competition acted, ”reported Axios.
The Trump administration’s relationship with Beijing began warmly, and the White House at the time described Trump’s first phone with the Chinese leader as “extremely cordial.” However, during his tenure, relations plummeted, with tensions over trade, the pandemic and China’s repressions and abuses against human rights and regional neighbors, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. U.S. arms sales to Taiwan increased dramatically under Trump, and as China’s armed forces expanded and modernized, cross-strait tensions increased.
The Biden government is reviewing the sanctions and tariffs imposed by Trump, but said it will continue a tougher line than that maintained during Obama’s term. He raised the six decades-old guarantees made with the island’s government to the same level as the three communiqués outlining China-US relations and the Taiwan Relations Act, which requires the United States to provide material support to Taiwan for its self-defense.
China’s military reacted aggressively. At the end of last month, he sent more than a dozen fighters, bombers and reconnaissance planes to Taiwan’s aerial identification zone on two consecutive days, far more than the usual departures of two or three aircraft sent regularly last year. It was widely interpreted as a message for the newly opened Biden.
Earlier on Wednesday in Washington, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the United States, Hsiao Bi-khim, said he had met with Deputy Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Sung Kim.
Hsiao said he had a “good meeting” with Kim and his team, “where we covered many issues of mutual interest, reflecting our strong and broad partnership”.
The State Department secretary posted a photo of the meeting on Twitter, with the two representatives together and wearing masks.
“The United States is deepening ties with Taiwan, a leading democracy and an important economic and security partner,” the newspaper said in its Twitter account.