Their first conversation was highly anticipated: US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, began their new relationship with an elaborate phone call in which they each wanted to mark their territory.
“Yesterday (Wednesday) night, I spent two hours on the phone without interruption with Xi Jinping,” the new White House tenant of the Oval Office said yesterday, showing his will to stand firm against Beijing. “If we don’t act, they will crush us,” he added at the end of this unusually long dialogue for the leaders of the first two world powers.
According to the US executive summary, Biden was much more blunt on today’s sensitive issues: Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Uyghur Muslim minority. In addition, he expressed his “deep concern” about the issue of human rights
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And, as planned, the strong man’s response in Beijing was determined. According to Chinese state media, Xi invited his US counterpart to stay away from the issues surrounding “China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” “EE. The US must respect China’s fundamental interests and act with caution,” they stressed.
Ever since they took power, Biden and his team have multiplied warnings about the Uyghur issue. Experts say more than a million people from this Muslim minority are being held in political re-education camps in Xinjiang. This vast semi-desert area, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, is under strict police surveillance. Beijing rejects the term “camps” and asserts that they are vocational training centers designed to provide employment for the population and keep religious extremism at bay.
The two leaders also discussed the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and the proliferation of weapons.
Already in a rhetoric closer to that of the previous administration, Biden’s call also condemned Beijing’s “unfair and coercive” economic practices, the White House said. While the new president has clearly shown a desire to distance himself from Donald Trump’s foreign policy, the trade relationship with China is one of the few issues in which he can foster a degree of continuity from his predecessor.
Speaking anonymously, a senior government official stressed that the new government team agreed with the previous one and continues to confront Beijing in the context of “strategic competition” between the two powers. However, he added that “real problems” have been identified in the way the Trump administration handled them.
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This official reaffirmed on Wednesday that, for example, tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Chinese products will remain in place for the time being, pending a global overhaul of the US trade strategy.
“We have not yet made a decision on that issue,” he said. “There will be changes in our trade policy towards China, but they will not happen immediately and in the meantime we will not abolish tariffs,” he added, underlining the White House’s will to develop this strategy. agreement with the allies. “
Xi Jinping and Donald Trump had a tough trade momentum during their bilateral ties.
In an interview broadcast on CBS on Sunday, Biden warned that the rivalry between China and the US will turn into “extreme competition,” while saying at the same time that he wants to avoid “conflict” between the two countries.
‘I’m not going to do it like Trump did. We are going to focus on international rules, ”he added of the relationship, emphasizing that he knew Xi well because he had long meetings with him when he was Barack Obama’s vice president, between 2009 and 2017.
During this first call, Biden also argued for a more pragmatic approach to things like the weather.
On the other hand, Biden yesterday withdrew the declaration of “national emergency” at the border with Mexico, justifying Trump’s use of billions of dollars allocated to military spending to build a border wall.
AFP
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