Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping held a three-hour meeting on Monday, November 14th, ahead of the G20 summit. Reporting from Bali, Indonesia, CNBC cites sources who called the meeting between the two “candid:”
U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday raised objections to China’s actions toward Taiwan in a three-hour meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. … It was the first time the two superpower leaders had met in person since Biden took office in January 2021, during the pandemic.
Unsurprisingly, Taiwan was the most tense subject of conversation. According to CNBC, President Biden reaffirmed U.S. commitment to the “one China policy.” At the same time, the president raised “U.S. objections to the PRC’s coercive and increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan.”
In a separate report, Reuters characterized the conversations between Biden and Xi as “blunt” with reference to Taiwan, but also to North Korea:
Amid simmering differences on human rights, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and support of domestic industry, the two leaders pledged more frequent communications. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Beijing for follow-up talks.
Reuters also noted that Biden “sought to assure Xi” about America’s continued two-pronged approach to Taiwan, which supports “both Beijing’s ‘One China’ stance and Taiwan’s military.”
The U.S. president expressed a more unambiguous position on North Korea. From Yahoo News:
Joe Biden has told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that Beijing carried the obligation to tell North Korea to not engage in long-range nuclear testing.
Should Beijing fail to do so,
Washington will step up its military presence in the Korean region to defend itself and its allies South Korea and Japan.
At a follow-up press conference, President Biden explained in no uncertain terms that the United States “would do what it needs to defend its allies” in the event North Korean nuclear weapons tests resume.
