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WASHINGTON: Joe Biden made his first call as president with Xi Jinping on Wednesday (February 10), pressuring the Chinese leader on trade and Beijing’s crackdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong, as well as other human rights concerns. .
The two leaders spoke hours after Biden announced plans for a Pentagon task force to review the US national security strategy in China and after the new US president announced that he would impose sanctions against Myanmar’s military regime. after this month’s coup in the Southeast Asian country.
A White House statement said Biden expressed concern about “coercive and unfair economic practices” by Beijing. Biden also pressured Xi about Beijing’s crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses against ethnic minorities and Uighurs in western Xinjiang province, and his actions toward Taiwan.
Biden, who had dealt with the Chinese leader when he served as Barack Obama’s vice president, used his first three weeks in the White House to make several calls with other leaders in the Indo-Pacific region. He has tried to send the message that he would take a radically different approach to China than former President Donald Trump, who placed trade and economic issues above all else in the US-China relationship.
For his part, the Chinese president told his US counterpart that the confrontation between their countries would be a disaster for them and that both sides should restore the means to avoid misunderstandings and wrong judgments.
Xi also told Biden that he hopes the United States will handle Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang-related issues dealing with China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity issues, according to an account of the discussions reported by Chinese state television on Thursday.
With Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the end of last month, Biden underscored the United States’ commitment to protect the Senkaku Islands, a group of uninhabited islets administered by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing.
In his call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Biden stressed the need for “close cooperation to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific.” And in his call with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week, the president stressed that the alliance of the two nations was essential for stability in the region, the White House said.
Biden’s top aides have repeatedly heard from their Asia-Pacific counterparts that they had been put off by Trump’s often sharp rhetoric directed at allies, talk of cutting troop levels in South Korea, and strange interactions with the North Korean dictator. Kim Jong Un, according to a senior administration official. who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private calls.
Allies in the region have made it clear that they want a more determined and consistent approach to commitments going forward, according to the official.
