Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday warned the United States not to cross a “red line” in support of Taiwan, but told his counterpart Joe Biden that Beijing is ready to work with the incoming administration of Donald Trump.
Two months before Trump takes office and amid concerns of new trade wars and diplomatic turmoil, Biden and Xi met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru.
China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has refused to use force to seize it, while the United States is the self-ruled island’s main security supporter, even though it does not recognize Taipei diplomatically. Doesn’t give.
According to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, Xi told Biden that “the Taiwan issue, democracy and human rights, pathways and systems, and development interests are China’s four red lines that must not be challenged”.
“These are the most important guardrails and safety nets for China-US relations,” CCTV quoted Xi as saying.
“Separatist actions of ‘Taiwan independence’ are incompatible with peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that “China’s ongoing military provocations near Taiwan are the root cause of the destruction of regional peace and stability and a major threat to global economic prosperity.”
According to CCTV, Xi also told Biden that Washington “should not interfere in bilateral disputes… and should not condemn or support provocative impulses in the South China Sea”.
Beijing has more assertively pressed its broader claims to the disputed waterway this year, despite rising tensions with regional neighbors and a long-standing international ruling that its claims have no legal basis.
Xi also said China’s position on the war in Ukraine is “open and clear”, and Beijing will not allow tensions on the Korean Peninsula to “turn into conflict or chaos”, CCTV reported.
He announced during a separate meeting that China will host the next APEC summit in 2026.
State news agency Xinhua said those talks would aim to “unite Asia-Pacific countries for open economic and trade cooperation while rejecting protectionist and confrontational trade strategies.”
‘smooth transition’
But Xi said China would “strive for a smooth transition” in relations with the United States and was ready to work with the incoming Trump administration.
“China is willing to work with the new US administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences, so as to lead to a smooth transition of China-US relations,” Xi told Biden through a translator. An effort can be made.”
In his first term in the White House, Trump has been embroiled in a fierce trade war with China, imposing tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese products and drawing retaliation from Beijing.
He adopted a similar stance in the campaign this year.
Xi said the two sides should “continue to find the right path for the two major countries to treat each other well.”
Xi warned on Saturday that bilateral relations “could fluctuate or even decline” if one side considered the other a rival or enemy, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
Xi urged against the “small yard, high fence” approach, saying, “Competition among big countries should not be the underlying logic of the times.” He said that “a stable China-US relationship is important for both sides and the world”, noting that Beijing aims for healthy relations.
But he stressed that Beijing’s “position of firmly safeguarding its sovereignty, security and development interests has not changed”, according to Xinhua.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
