- ‘Candid and in-depth discussion’ leads to agreement to step up communications at various levels
- The US president made clear the conversation was part of Washington’s efforts to ‘responsibly manage’ their competition
Teddy Ng Published 10 Sep, 2021
US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping spoke by phone on Friday to manage the increasing rivalry between Beijing and Washington, with Xi calling for courage to set ties back on the right track, as their confrontational path would only make the world suffer.
US officials said Biden initiated the 90-minute call, which focused on the way ahead for the troubled relations between the two countries.
According to a Chinese government statement, Xi and Biden had a “candid and in-depth” discussion on a wide range of issues facing their two nations and agreed to step up communications in the wake of their call.
The Chinese government said Taiwan was discussed, and the US had said it was committed to the one-China policy, but the White House statement made no mention of any specific issues covered.
Xi told Biden that China-US relations were facing “serious difficulties” because of US policies towards China. “The world will benefit if China and the US cooperate. But the world will suffer if China and the US confront each other,” he said, according to the statement.
The two nations should show “strategic and political courage to push China-US relations back to the right track of stable development as soon as possible”.
The Chinese government said the two leaders should deepen communication on major international issues and maintain contact at various levels. “Both sides will step up working level coordination and dialogue to create conditions for the development of China-US relations.”
Xi said dialogue and coordination could continue on climate change, Covid-19 pandemic control and the post-pandemic economic recovery.
The White House said “Biden underscored the United States’ enduring interest in peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and the world and the two leaders discussed the responsibility of both nations to ensure competition does not veer into conflict”.
A senior White House official told reporters that Biden called for the leaders to ensure that “competition” between the two powers did not become “conflict”. Biden’s message was that the US wanted to ensure “the dynamic remains competitive and that we don’t have any situation in the future where we veer into unintended conflict”, the official said.
It was the first phone call between Xi and Biden since February. The spat between the two powers over a wide range of issues has been escalating over the past months. The US has complained of unfair trade practices by China, moved to step up relations with Taiwan through arms sales and politicians’ visits, and ordered an intelligence probe to determine whether Covid-19 was leaked from a Wuhan lab.
Beijing has deemed the actions and allegations by the US political smearing and violation of its sovereignty.
But the two sides have identified areas of cooperation, including on North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme and climate change.
The latest phone call between Xi and Biden came one day ahead of the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, and follows the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan. Beijing is worried that the situation in Kabul could heighten security risks in the region, and has blamed the chaos on the withdrawal of US troops from the country.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry last week that tensions between the two nations could undermine cooperation on climate change. Wang told Kerry the US needed to take steps to improve ties.
A source familiar with the climate discussion said the two sides failed to reach agreement, with Beijing rebuffing US calls to make more public pledges before a UN climate summit in November, insisting it should follow its own plan rather than bowing to US pressure.
Additional reporting by AFP