The North American president welcomed Wednesday that he could speak “directly and immediately” to his Chinese counterpart in the event of a crisis, despite considering Xi Jinping “a dictator.”
At the end of a meeting between the two in California, Joe Biden said the two leaders agreed to “keep the lines of communication open.”
“We agreed that each of us could pick up the phone, call immediately and be heard immediately”Biden emphasized during the press conference at the end of the meeting.
The North American president admitted that negotiations with his Chinese counterpart were “one of the most constructive and productive discussions” they had ever had.
When asked if he trusts Xi, Biden said: “Trust, but verify, as the old saying goes. That’s where I stand”in which the relationship between the two powers is described as competitive.
“I know the man, I know his ‘modus operandi’, I have looked him in the eye – we have differences of opinion. He has a different view of me on many things, but he has been honest. That is not my intention. say that he is good, better, indifferent, just straight”he considered.
Despite the apparent evolution of the relationship between them, after the more than four-hour meeting, Biden continued to regard his Chinese counterpart as “a dictator.”
At the end of the press conference, a journalist asked the head of state whether he still considered Xi “a dictator.”
“He is a dictator in the sense that he is a man who runs a country that is communist”Biden said, adding that the Chinese government is “totally different” from the North American one.
During a fundraiser for the 2024 election campaign last June, Biden called Xi a “dictator” for the first time, sparking excitement among the Asian giant.
During Wednesday’s meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the two leaders agreed to work together to reduce illicit fentanyl production, resume military communications, start an intergovernmental dialogue on artificial intelligence and adding direct flights between the two countries. .
On the controversial Taiwan issue, a source of tension between Washington and Beijing, Biden said he had “made it clear that he did not expect any interference” in Taiwan’s next presidential election, scheduled for January.
The President emphasized his commitment to the ‘One China’ policy.
“I reiterated what I have said since I became president, and what all previous presidents have said recently: we continue to agree that there is a ‘One China’ policy.”Biden said, adding that “that’s not going to change.”
According to the White House, Joe Biden also took the opportunity to express his concerns about China’s “human rights violations” in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.
The two leaders split their time together between a meeting, a working lunch and a short walk on a rural estate on the outskirts of San Francisco.
‘I spent more time with President Xi than any other international leader’Joe Biden emphasized.
When the two were vice presidents, they spent 68 hours face to face getting to know each other, he recalled.
At the press conference, Joe Biden also addressed the conflict between Israel and Hamas, accusing the Islamist group of committing a “war crime” by operating what the United States and Israel said was a command center in Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.
The US president said that during the meeting with Xi Jinping he discussed the dangerous situation in the hospital, the largest in Gaza.
“There is a circumstance in which the first war crime is committed by Hamas, by hiding its headquarters and army under a hospital. And that is a fact. That’s what happened.”he told reporters.
Biden stated that he has not set a deadline at this time to ask the Israeli army to cease the land invasion of the Palestinian enclave and emphasized that the end of the conflict involves betting on the “two-state solution”, one Jewish and the other Arab, “in a realistic way”.
The US head of state also said he was “relatively optimistic” about the imminent release of the hostages Hamas has been holding since October 7 and assured that he had asked Israel to be “extremely cautious” in carrying out operations in Gaza’s main hospital.
On October 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel with the launch of thousands of rockets and the incursion of armed militiamen.
In response, Israel declared war on Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and is classified as terrorist by the EU and the United States, by bombing several of the group’s infrastructure facilities in Gaza and imposing a total siege of the territory, where the water supply is shut off. supplies, fuel and electricity.
Israeli bombardments from the air, land and sea caused more than 11,000 deaths, mostly civilians, in the Gaza Strip, according to Hamas data.
Chinese president calls for building “more bridges” with the US
The Chinese president called for building “more bridges” with the United States, during a dinner with North American businesspeople in San Francisco, attended by Elon Musk and Tim Cook, among others.
Xi Jinping took part in the event, after meeting hours earlier with his North American counterpart, Joe Biden, to try to stabilize ties and prevent the increasingly competitive relationship from resulting in open conflict.
“We must build more bridges and pave more roads so that the people of both countries can communicate with each other. We must not create barriers (…)”the Chinese leader said, as quoted by China’s official Xinhua news agency.
Xi believed that Washington should not see China as the main competitor and assured that the country is willing to be a “partner and friend” of the US based on the fundamental principles of the United States. “respect, peaceful coexistence and cooperation for mutual benefit”.
“If either side views the other as its main competitor, geopolitical challenge and threat, it will only lead to uninformed policies, misguided actions and undesirable outcomes”he claimed.
“China will not have a cold or hot war with anyone. Regardless of the level of development it reaches, China will never seek hegemony or expansion and never impose its will on others.”he explained.
The Chinese leader also mentioned Beijing’s key multilateral initiatives, including the massive Belt and Road international infrastructure project and the Global Development, Global Security and Global Civilization initiatives, “which are always open to all countries.”
He also announced that the country is ready to invite 50,000 young North Americans to travel to China over the next five years, as part of exchange and academic programs aimed at strengthening relations between the two peoples.
The dinner, held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, taking place in San Francisco until Friday, brought together tycoons and executive presidents such as Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, Jane Fraser , representative of the bank Citigroup, Darren Woods, of the oil company ExxonMobil, and Satya Nadella, of Microsoft.
The price for each table with eight seats was 40,000 dollars (about 37 thousand euros).
The event was also attended by US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, who visited China this year, as well as US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, the executive chairmen of asset managers BlackRock, Blackstone and Bridgewater, and Citadel Securities bank. .
Some Republican politicians criticized the meeting for whitewashing the image of the Asian power that Congressman Mike Gallagher said is responsible for a “genocide of millions of innocent men, women and children in Xinjiang,” a region in northwest China where the ethnic minority of Uyghur Muslim descent.
China is trying to revive its economy, which has recovered more slowly than expected after three years of the Covid-19 pandemic and housing crisis.
Xi’s visit to the United States also came as American and Western companies are trying to reduce risks in supply chains by moving some operations out of China.
In October, the US increased restrictions on exports to China of semiconductors and technology to develop artificial intelligence, to which Beijing responded with controls on exports of graphite, crucial for the production of batteries for electric vehicles.
Source: DN
