His first long-awaited conversation: the US president. U.S., Joe Biden, and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, kicked off their new relationship with an extensive phone call in which everyone wanted to mark their territory.
“Last night (Wednesday) I spent two hours on the phone without interruption with Xi Jinping,” the new White House tenant from the Oval Office said Thursday, showing his willingness to stand firm against Beijing. “If we do nothing, they will crush us,” he added at the end of this unusually long dialogue to discuss the leaders of the world’s top two powers.
According to the summary of the US executive, Biden was much more forceful on current sensitive issues: Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Uighur Muslim minority. He also expressed his “deep concerns” about the human rights issue
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And, as expected, Beijing’s strongman’s response was firm. According to Chinese state media, Xi called on his US counterpart to stay away from issues that fall on “China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” “The United States must respect China’s fundamental interests and act prudently,” they stressed.
Since coming to power, Biden and his team have multiplied warnings about the Uyghur issue. According to experts, more than a million people from this Muslim minority are being held in political re-education camps in Xinjiang. This vast semi-desert region, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, is under strict police surveillance. Beijing rejects the term ‘camps’ and says that these are vocational training centers, designed to provide employment to the population and keep religious extremism at bay.
The two leaders also spoke about the covid-19 pandemic, climate change and the proliferation of weapons.
Already in a rhetoric closer to that of previous government, Biden also denounced in the so-called “unfair and coercive” economic practices of Beijing, according to the White House. While the new president has clearly shown his willingness to distance himself from Donald Trump’s foreign policy, the trade relationship with China is one of the few issues in which he could promote some continuity with respect to his predecessor.
A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stressed that the new government team coincides with the previous one to continue to face Beijing in the framework of the “strategic competition” between the two powers. He added, however, that “real problems” have been identified in the way the Trump administration approached it.
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That official reaffirmed on Wednesday that, for example, tariffs imposed by President Trump’s administration on Chinese products will be maintained for the time being, pending a global overhaul of US trade strategy. UU.
“We have not made a decision on this matter,” he assured. “There will be changes in our trade policy vis-à-vis China, but they will not be immediate and in the meantime we will not eliminate tariffs,” he added, stressing the White House’s willingness to develop this strategy “in line with the their allies “.
Xi Jinping and Donald Trump held a tough trade pulse during their bilateral relations.
In an interview aired Sunday on CBS, Biden warned that the rivalry between China and the US. UU. It will be transformed into “extreme competition”, although at the same time he assured that he wants to avoid a “conflict” between the two countries.
“I won’t do it the way Trump did. We’re going to focus on international rules,” he added about the relationship, noting that he knew Xi well for having long meetings with him when he was vice president of Barack Obama. between 2009 and 2017.
During this first call, Biden also advocated a more pragmatic treatment of issues such as climate.
On the other hand, Biden yesterday rescinded the declaration of “national emergency” on the border with Mexico with which Trump justified the use of billions of dollars allocated to military spending for the construction of a border wall .
AFP
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