Joe Biden and Xi Jinping to meet Monday to handle rivalry responsibly

The two leaders, whose first meeting in the flesh since the election of Joe Biden, will discuss how to “responsibly manage” the rivalry between China and the United States while trying to “work together where our interests are aligned,” said in a statement the White House spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, echoing the formulas usually used by the Americans.

 

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, who have already spoken several times by phone and video conference, will also discuss a series of “international and regional” topics, she said, but without explicitly mentioning the fate of Taiwan, which concentrates all the tensions.

What I want to do with him, when we talk, is to determine the type of red lines” that we must respect, said Wednesday the Democratic leader at a press conference in Washington.

 

“The doctrine on Taiwan has not changed at all,” Biden repeated, avoiding rephrasing previous comments that had angered Beijing, according to which the U.S. military would defend Taiwan if the island was attacked.

Xi Jinping won a third term at the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress last month, reinforcing his status as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Tse-tung. This has raised fears in Taiwan, but also in Washington, that China is redoubling its efforts to achieve reunification with the island.

 

Joe Biden frequently emphasizes his long-standing relationship with the Chinese leader, which began when he was still Barack Obama’s vice president.

Their last conversation dates back to the end of July and the White House teams had been working for weeks to organize a face-to-face meeting in Bali.

 

Since then, the tension between Washington and Beijing has hardly subsided, on the contrary.

 

It concerns Taiwan, but also the positioning of each power in relation to Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as their technological and commercial rivalry, at a time when the Americans are trying to revive their own high-tech industry to reduce their dependence on China.