China’s Xi Jinping heads home after flurry of top-level talks at Apec and G20
- Chinese president says meeting with Joe Biden will guide the next phase of US-China relations
- Xi playing diplomatic catch-up at gatherings after pandemic-induced hiatus, analyst says
Xi also told Harris that he hoped both sides would improve mutual understanding and push for the return of “healthy and stable” bilateral ties, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Harris, meanwhile, underlined Biden’s message to the Chinese leader that “we must maintain open lines of communication to responsibly manage the competition between our countries”, Agence France-Presse reported, quoting a US official who requested anonymity.
The Xi-Biden meeting at the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, was the first in-person sit-down between the pair as heads of state, and covered a range of thorny topics, including Taiwan and the war in Ukraine.
Biden also pressed Xi on North Korea, which has accelerated its missile tests this year, including holding an intercontinental ballistic missile test on Friday.
Analysts said the three-hour meeting in Bali signalled a mutual desire to turn down the temperature after a series of flashpoints in recent months, particularly over Taiwan and technology.
Xi used the meetings to call for stronger ties while selling China’s economic role in the region. He continued his pitch on Saturday, repeating his country’s commitment to trade liberalisation and a rules-based multilateral trading system.
According to the Chinese foreign ministry, Xi told leaders that greater efforts were needed to boost regional economic cooperation.
“China will not waver in its commitment to high-standard opening up. China will open its door wider,” he was quoted as saying.
He said Russia’s war in Ukraine had shaken “the basis of international order”, and unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force in East Asia “must never be tolerated”.
“Faced with such reality, in order to secure peace and stability, we will strengthen Japan’s role in diplomacy and security,” he said.
Tokyo would “steadfastly strengthen” the Japan-US alliance and work with other partners to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific, he said, borrowing a Washington refrain.
But Kishida also described his meeting with Xi on Thursday as “candid”, and said both leaders agreed to maintain close communication at the highest level. They also agreed that nuclear weapons must not be used in the Ukraine war.
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Dylan Loh, an assistant professor in foreign policy at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said the meetings between Xi and US officials bode well for US-China ties and went “a long way” in restoring lines of communication between the two countries.
“Of course, it remains to be seen if anything concrete or substantial comes out of this as Sino-US relations will continue to remain tense but it is a very positive start,” he said.
After being largely absent due to the pandemic, Xi was also playing “diplomatic catch-up” with his back-to-back meetings with regional leaders, Loh said, adding that he expected the pace of such interactions to pick up.
As the Apec forum closed on Saturday, member states agreed on a joint final declaration which, among other things, stated that the vast majority of countries condemned the war in Ukraine.
The declaration noted, however, that there were “other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions”, similar to the conclusion reached days earlier by the G20 members.
Xi also met Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Saturday.
The summit was the final of a trio held in Asia over the past week and a half, starting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Cambodia on November 10.