US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold their first summit in person on Monday in Bali, Indonesia, the White House reported on Thursday, with Washington wanting to talk about Taiwan, the trade and other matters has reported Kyodo News.
Biden, who will attend the annual summit of the Group of 20 major economies on the resort island, said Wednesday he was willing to discuss one-on-one with Xi “what are our red lines” on the sidelines of the two-day event.
Biden told reporters that he wants to determine whether or not critical US and Chinese interests conflict, and “if they do, how to resolve it and how to fix it.”
“I am not prepared to make any fundamental concessions,” he added.
Possible meeting between Xi Jinping and Alberto Fernández at the next G20 summit
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a news conference in Beijing on Thursday that the leaders are in regular contact through various channels and the US side proposed holding a Biden-Xi summit in Bali.
The Biden administration is trying to manage intensifying competition with China, which it calls a “sole competitor” with the intent and power to challenge the United States and the rules-based international order.
Tensions over Taiwan have risen following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the self-governing democratic island in August, and China has reacted by increasing its military activities.
Communist China and Taiwan have been governed separately since they broke up in 1949 due to civil war. China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that must be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
Biden, who will attend the annual summit of the Group of 20 major economies in the resort island, said on Wednesday he was willing to discuss one-on-one with Xi “what are our red lines” on the sidelines of the two-day event.
Biden has made repeated comments committing to the defense of Taiwan, in what can be seen as a departure from Washington’s longstanding position of maintaining so-called strategic ambiguity regarding the use of military force in response to a Chinese attack on Taipei. .
Biden told Wednesday’s news conference that the “Taiwan doctrine hasn’t changed at all,” apparently referring to America’s one-China policy, under which it recognizes Beijing as China’s only legal government.
Zhao said the Taiwan issue is “the core of China’s fundamental interests,” and the one-China principle is the political foundation of China-US relations.
The United States switched its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but has maintained unofficial relations with Taiwan, supplying it with defensive weapons under a law passed by Congress that same year.
Asked if he would personally tell Xi that the United States is committed to defending Taiwan, Biden said: “I’m going to have that conversation with him.”
Biden is scheduled to leave Washington on Thursday for a trip to Egypt, Cambodia and Indonesia.
Biden, for his part, said Wednesday that he was told that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the G-20 meeting.
The G-20 groups Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey, along with the economies of the Group of Seven – Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States – plus the European Union.
