Xi: US ‘playing with fire’ on Taiwan

 The White House sets low expectations for the meeting, and no major announcements or even a joint statement were delivered

President Joe Biden and China’s Xi  Jinping’s more than three-hour virtual talk concluded with the leaders  of the superpowers agreeing they  need to tread carefully as their nations find themselves in an increasingly fraught competition.

Facing domestic pressures at  home, both Biden and Xi seemed  determined to lower the temperature in what for both sides is their  most significant — and frequently  turbulent — relationship on the  global stage.

“As I’ve said before, it seems to  me our responsibility as leaders  of China and the United States is  to ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer  into conflict, whether intended or  unintended,” Biden told Xi at the  start of their virtual meeting Monday. “Just simple, straightforward  competition.”

The White House set low expectations for the meeting, and no major announcements or even a joint  statement were delivered. Still,  White House officials said the two  leaders had a substantive exchange.  Xi greeted the U.S. president as his  “old friend” and echoed Biden’s  cordial tone in his own opening  remarks, saying, “China and the  United States need to increase communication and cooperation.”

The relationship has had no  shortage of tension since Biden  strode into the White House in  January and quickly criticized  Beijing for human rights abuses  against Uyghurs in northwest  China, suppression of democratic  protests in Hong Kong, military  aggression against the self-ruled  island of Taiwan and more. Xi’s  deputies, meanwhile, have lashed  out against the Biden White House  for interfering in what they see as  internal Chinese matters. Chinese  officials said in advance that Taiwan would be their top issue for  the talks. Tensions have heightened as the Chinese military has  dispatched an increasing number  of fighter jets near the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory.  -(AP)

Xi: China and US should coexist

Beijing: Chinese President Xi  Jinping told his US counterpart  Joe Biden that China and the  US should respect each other,  coexist in peace and pursue a  win-win cooperation as the two  leaders held a virtual summit on  Tuesday. Speaking at the summit, Xi called for developing a  sound and steady China-US relationship and expressed his readiness to work with Biden to build  consensus and take active steps  to move the bilateral relations  forward in a positive direction.  Doing so will advance the interests of the two and meet the expectations of the international  community, Xi said. The highlyanticipated summit, which began early Tuesday, is the third  engagement between Xi, 68, and  Biden, 78, since February. The  two leaders had a lengthy phone  call in September. The meeting  came amid high tension in China-US bilateral relationship over  Beijing’s actions on issues like  trade, human rights, the South  China Sea and Taiwan.