US President Joe Biden yesterday said he would seek to establish “red lines” in the US’ fraught relations with Beijing when he holds high-stakes talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Biden said he goes into today’s encounter on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Indonesia in a better position after his Democratic Party’s unexpected success in the midterm elections.
“I feel good and I’m looking forward to the next couple years,” he said. “I know I’m coming in stronger.”
Photo: Reuters
Washington and Beijing are at loggerheads over issues ranging from trade to human rights in China’s Xinjiang region and the status of Taiwan.
Biden said he expected candid talks with Xi.
“I know Xi Jinping, he knows me,” he said, adding that they have always had “straightforward discussions.”
The two men have known each other for more than a decade, since Biden’s time as US vice president, but today will see them meet face-to-face for the first time in their current roles.
“We have very little misunderstanding. We just got to figure out what the red lines are,” Biden said.
White House officials have said Biden would push China to use its influence to rein in North Korea after a record-breaking spate of missile tests sent fears soaring that the reclusive regime would soon carry out its seventh nuclear test.
China is Pyongyang’s main ally and US officials said that, while Biden would not make demands, he would warn Xi that further missile and nuclear build-up would mean the US boosting its military presence in the region — something Beijing bitterly opposes.
“North Korea represents a threat not just to the United States, not just to [South Korea] and Japan, but to peace and stability across the entire region,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters.
Biden flew to Phnom Penh from the COP27 climate conference as part of US efforts to boost its influence in Southeast Asia as a counter to China.
Biden yesterday told leaders at the ASEAN summit there — including Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) — that the US would speak out against Beijing’s rights abuses, the White House said in a news release.
A day earlier Biden took a veiled swipe at Beijing.
He said the US would work with ASEAN to “defend against the significant threats to rules-based order and threats to the rule of law.”
While the US president did not refer to China by name, Washington has long criticized what it says are Beijing’s efforts to undermine international norms on everything from intellectual property to human rights.
Despite US-China tensions Biden and Li clinked glasses together in a toast at a gala dinner on Saturday night, where they were seated on either side of the host, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
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