The USA and China are approaching each other: US President Biden and his colleague Xi take a lot of time during their meeting. The major issues cannot be resolved, but people want to talk to each other more again – including militarily.
US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to resume communication between their countries’ armed forces. Biden said after a meeting between the two leaders in Woodside near San Francisco that resuming communication was “critically important.” Chinese state media reported a start to military communications “on the basis of equality and respect.”
Without exchange, accidents and misunderstandings could occur, Biden explained. According to media reports from the White House, it is now planned, among other things, that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will meet his Chinese colleague.
There should also be operational discussions between high-ranking military leaders from both countries. The US commander of the Pacific Air Forces will also take part, it said. Shipmasters should also exchange ideas with each other.
Call each other directly in the future
Biden described the talks as “constructive” and “productive.” “I just concluded a meeting with President Xi that lasted several hours, and I believe these were the most constructive and productive discussions we have ever had,” the US president said at a press conference.
He and Xi also agreed to call each other directly in the event of crises between the two countries. They had agreed “that everyone can pick up the phone and call the other directly and be heard immediately,” said Biden. “We will maintain high-level diplomacy (…) to keep the channels of communication open,” he emphasized.
Biden explained that although he disagreed with Xi on many things, Xi was “simply honest” with him during the talks. He still sees Xi as a dictator “in the sense that he is running a communist country based on a form of government that is completely different than ours,” he said.
Taiwan issue
According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Xi demanded at the meeting that the US “stop arming Taiwan and support China’s peaceful reunification.” China will implement reunification, it is “unstoppable,” said Xi. He also assured Biden that China is not trying to “outdo or displace the United States” and emphasized that the United States, for its part, should not try to suppress China.
According to the state news agency Xinhua, it was also agreed to start government talks on the use of artificial intelligence and to form a working group to cooperate in combating drugs. Scheduled air traffic between the two countries should also be intensified, it was said.
“No option to turn away from each other”
At the start of the meeting, Biden called for relations between the USA and China to be managed responsibly. The competition between the two countries must not degenerate into a conflict. Xi spoke of the “most important bilateral relationship in the world” and said he and Biden bear great responsibility for the two peoples, for the world and for history. “For two big countries like China and the United States, turning away from each other is not an option,” Xi said. “It is unrealistic for one side to transform the other, and conflict and confrontation have intolerable consequences for both sides.”
First meeting in more than a year
The relationship between the USA and China has long been very tense. Biden and Xi had not seen each other in person or spoken since the G20 summit in Bali in November 2022. There have been various meetings and discussions between high-ranking government representatives from both sides in recent months, but no direct exchange between the two presidents.
The two heads of state met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco. However, Biden received Xi in a quiet place, 45 kilometers from San Francisco.