President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Joe Biden spoke to each other yesterday and their exchange did not really move the lines. Joe Biden has warned Xi Jinping against ” consequences “ for China of aid to Russia. The US President has “describes the implications and consequences of China providing material support to Russia as it carries out a brutal attack on Ukrainian towns and civilians”the White House said in a brief statement.
If he did not specify what reprisals China would expose itself to if it provided assistance to Russia, Joe Biden on the other hand “detailed” the harsh economic and financial sanctions already imposed by the West on the regime of Vladimir Putin, according to the American presidency. A senior American official clarified that the President of the United States had been “honest and direct” face to his counterpart, a diplomatic way of saying that the exchange was probably not excessively warm. “It is now the actions (of China) that we will look at”said US executive spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
If the statement from the White House was delayed for nearly four hours after the end of the interview, China for its part was quick to deliver its version of the conversation. “The Ukrainian crisis is not something we wanted to see” happen, said the Chinese head of state, according to remarks reported by Chinese television while the exchange was still in progress. He called his counterpart to “to work for peace and tranquility in the world” with him, according to the same source.
Where the United States urges China to distance itself from Russia, official statements from Beijing during and after the exchange between heads of state maintain a certain ambiguity. China therefore calls on the United States and NATO to have a “dialogue” with Russia on “security concerns” from Moscow as from kyiv, in a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs published at the end of the exchange.
This same press release from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also calls in vague terms on the “big countries” at “respect each other”. And he also warns, in a very general way, against any form of “broad and indiscriminate sanctions” who could “crippling an already struggling global economy and causing irreparable loss. »
Xi Jinping also took advantage of the call to issue a warning to his counterpart, saying that a “mishandling of the Taiwan issue would have a negative impact on the bilateral relationship”. Joe Biden has “repeated that US policy on Taiwan has not changed”and “stressed that the United States continues to oppose any unilateral change to the status quo”. China claims the island. The United States undertakes to recognize only one China, while providing arms to Taiwan for its self-defense.