Xi warns Biden not to arm Taiwan, agrees to restart military talks

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping warned US President Joe Biden at a summit to stop arming Taiwan, but agreed to restart high-level military-to-military talks, Beijing said on Thursday.

“The US side should... stop arming Taiwan, and support China´s peaceful reunification,” Xi told Biden, according to a readout from China´s foreign ministry.

“China will realise reunification, and this is unstoppable,” the Chinese leader said of the future of the self-ruled island, which Beijing has pledged to re-take one day. But the two leaders “agreed on Wednesday to resume on the basis of equality and respect high-level military-to-military communication,” Beijing state media said.

Military talks between the US and China have been on ice since August last year, when Beijing called them off in response to then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi´s visit to Taiwan.

Biden and Xi also agreed on Wednesday in California that the two sides would “conduct telephone conversations between theater commanders” as well as hold defence policy coordination and maritime talks, according to Beijing´s foreign ministry.

In addition, the summit saw the two men agree to set up joint government talks on the use of artificial intelligence, as well as a working group on counternarcotics cooperation, Xinhua news agency said.

They further committed to work towards stepping up scheduled passenger flights between their countries early next year.

And they agreed to deepen cooperation on climate change and step up joint efforts ahead of this month´s COP28 summit in Dubai.

Xi told Biden that China did not seek to “surpass or unseat the United States” and stressed that “the United States should not scheme to suppress and contain China”.

“China will not follow the old path of colonisation and plunder, nor will it follow the wrong path of hegemony when a country becomes strong,” Xi said, according to Xinhua.

China´s development, he said, “will not be stopped by external forces”. Xi also warned Washington that Beijing was dissatisfied with sanctions and other measures against its companies.

“US actions against China regarding export control, investment screening and unilateral sanctions seriously hurt China´s legitimate interests,” Xi said. “Suppressing China´s science and technology is curbing China´s high-quality development and depriving the Chinese people of their right to development.”

Meanwhile, Biden said he had not changed his view that Chinese President Xi Jinping was effectively a dictator, a comment likely to land with a thud in Beijing after the two leaders held straightforward summit talks.

Biden held a solo news conference after four hours of talks with Xi on the outskirts of San Francisco. At the end of the news conference, he was asked whether he still held the view that Xi was a dictator, something he said in June. China will not begin armed conflict with any nation, President Xi Jinping said after a high-stakes summit with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday.

“China does not seek spheres of influence, and will not fight a cold or hot war with any country,” he told a gathering of business leaders in San Francisco.

China, the world´s second largest economy, has benefitted from the US-dominated global order, he said, adding that good relations between the two countries were vital for both sides. “I believe that once the door to China-US relations is opened, it will not be closed again,” he said.

Biden and Xi agreed at their summit in California to rejuvenate a relationship that has struggled in recent years and to bolster direct communications between the two men.

Xi said China wanted to continue to improve its ties with Washington and assured his US hosts that his country did not seek confrontation with anyone.

“The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation cannot be achieved without a peaceful and stable international environment,” Xi said. “We will never revert to the beaten path of war, colonization, plundering or coercion in pursuing modernization.”