Biden and Xi hold first call since November summit

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a telephonic conversation on Tuesday, their first since a November summit in California, Chinese state media reported.

The two discussed China-US relations and issues of mutual concern. They also discussed the issue of Taiwan, China’s ties with Russia, and a newly enacted national security law in Hong Kong.

According to a statement from the White House, US President raised concerns about what Washington described as China’s “unfair trade policies and non-market economic practices.

Biden “emphasized that the United States will continue to take necessary actions to prevent advanced U.S. technologies from being used to undermine our national security, without unduly limiting trade and investment,” the White House said.

The call comes amid rising tensions in the South China Sea and ahead of next month’s inauguration of Taiwan’s new president. It also comes ahead of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to China on Thursday and Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip in the weeks ahead.

While in-person summits take place perhaps once a year, officials said, both Washington and Beijing recognize the value of more frequent engagements between the leaders, news agency AP reported.

The two leaders discussed Taiwan ahead of next month’s inauguration of Lai Ching-te, the island’s president-elect, who has vowed to safeguard its de-facto independence from China. Biden reaffirmed the United States’ longstanding “One China” policy and reiterated that the US opposes any coercive means to bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control.

China considers Taiwan a domestic matter and has vigorously protested U.S. support for the island. Biden also raised concerns about China’s operations in the South China Sea.

Biden, in the call with Xi, pressed China to do more to meet its commitments to halt the flow of illegal narcotics and to schedule additional precursor chemicals to prevent their export, AP reported. The pledge was made at the leaders’ summit held in Woodside, California, last year on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.

At the November summit, Biden and Xi also agreed that their governments would hold formal talks on the promises and risks of advanced artificial intelligence, which are set to take place in the coming weeks. The pair touched on the issue on Tuesday just two weeks after China and the US joined more than 120 other nations in backing a resolution at the United Nations calling for global safeguards around the emerging technology.

Biden, in the call, reinforced warnings to Xi against interfering in the 2024 elections in the US as well as against continued malicious cyberattacks against critical American infrastructure, according to a senior US administration official who previewed the call on the condition of anonymity. He also raised concerns about human rights in China, including Hong Kong’s new restrictive national security law and its treatment of minority groups, and he raised the plight of Americans detained in or barred from leaving China.

Biden also pressed China over its defense relationship with Russia, which is seeking to rebuild its industrial base as it presses forward with its invasion of Ukraine. And he called on Beijing to wield its influence over North Korea to rein in the isolated and erratic nuclear power. As the leaders of the world’s two largest economies, Biden also raised concerns with Xi over China’s “unfair economic practices,” the official said, and reasserted that the US would take steps to preserve its security and economic interests, including by continuing to limit the transfer of some advanced technology to China.

With inputs from Agencies

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