Xi, Biden in first phone call since 2022, make progress for China-US relations with ‘candid’ exchange of views
- Two leaders described as holding ‘a candid and in-depth exchange of views’ on topics ranging from counter-narcotics cooperation to climate change
- But Xi criticised Biden’s ‘endless stream of measures to suppress China’s economy, trade, science and technology’
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Ahead of the call, a senior White House official said Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduling a trip to China in coming weeks and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was also visiting the country this month. The two sides were also expecting a call between their top military officials “soon”.
After last year’s summit with Xi, seen as a success in Washington, Biden told reporters that “[the Chinese leader] and I agreed that each is willing to pick up the phone and call directly and be heard immediately”.
“In the past few months, teams from both sides have conscientiously implemented the consensus we reached, and Sino-US relations have stabilised, which has been welcomed by all walks of life in both countries and the international community,” Xinhua said of Tuesday’s call.
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“On the other hand, negative factors in the relations between the two countries have also increased, which require the attention of both parties,” it added.
“The United States has launched an endless stream of measures to suppress China’s economy, trade, science and technology, and the list of sanctions against Chinese companies is getting longer and longer,” the report said.
“This is not de-risking, but creation of risks.”
On this issue, Biden told Xi that he “will continue to take necessary actions to prevent advanced US technologies from being used to undermine our national security, without unduly limiting trade and investment”, according to the White House read-out.
The comments were similar to Beijing’s statement published after the November summit in which Xi said the Biden administration’s control measures “have seriously harmed China’s legitimate interests”.
He told Biden at the time that these measures were “suppressing China’s science and technology to hinder China’s high-quality development and deprive the Chinese people of their right to development”.
Hours later, at a dinner organised by the National Committee on US-China Relations, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo responded that Washington was “adopting targeted, precise protections [so] our most sensitive technology … cannot be used against us”.
The measure should not be seen as an obstacle to cooperation between the two sides on matters of mutual interest, Raimondo added.
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Biden also raised continued concerns about “[China’s] unfair trade policies and non-market economic practices, which harm American workers and families”, according to the White House read-out.
Beijing regards the island as part of China and has not renounced the use of force to bring it back under its control. Like most countries, the US does not recognise Taiwan as independent, but it is opposed to any unilateral change to the island’s status quo.
The latest call formed part of an “ongoing effort” between the two leaders to “maintain regular open lines of communication, to responsibly manage competition and prevent unintended conflict”, the White House official said.
Military-to-military communication channels between the two powers were severed after Pelosi’s visit a few weeks later and were only restored after the Woodside summit.
Since then, military officials from both sides met at the Defence Policy Coordination Talks in Washington – where they exchanged contrary views over Taiwan – in early January.
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This week, the two countries plan to hold a Military Maritime Consultative Agreement meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The White House official who spoke ahead of the call said some progress had been made on the commitment to cooperate on anti-narcotic measures, another outcome of last year’s Xi-Biden summit.
While China has implemented some initial measures to restrict the flow of chemicals used to produce illicit synthetic drugs, there was still a need for substantive law enforcement actions and close consultations from both sides, the official said.
Additional reporting by Robert Delaney in Washington
