China uses Biden-Xi summit to warn Trump

Chinese President Xi Jinping set red lines during his meeting with his US counterpart Joe Biden, in what is seen as a message for the new Trump administration.

The two leaders met Saturday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Lima, Peru, for their third and likely final meeting. Xi's remarks are seen as aimed less at Biden, now in his lame duck era, than at President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump has signaled that relations with China could get off to a rocky start under his administration. He appealed to China hawks Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Congressman Mike Waltz (R-FL), Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, respectively. The president-elect has pledged to increase tariffs on Chinese goods by up to 60 percent.

Xi said “a new Cold War should not be fought and cannot be won” and that attempts to “contain China's rise” are both reckless and futile, according to a published summary of his remarks by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The leader stressed the importance of matching actions with words and treating each other “as equals.”

“Neither China nor the United States should seek to reshape the other according to their own will, remove the other from the so-called 'position of power,' or deprive the other of the legitimate right to development in order to maintain his status as leader.” Xi was paraphrased as saying.

He also outlined four non-negotiables with respect to the United States.

One of them was Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as its territory, by force if necessary. Beijing's Chinese Communist Party-led government has never held power there.

US political support for and arms sales to the island democracy are among the most contentious sticking points in relations between Washington and Beijing.

Xi said that if the United States is serious about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it must “see the true nature of (Taiwan President) Lai Ching-te” and the Democratic Progressive Party. Beijing considers Lai, who took office in May, and his party to be separatists.

The United States should treat “the Taiwan issue with increased caution, unequivocally oppose Taiwan's independence, and support China's peaceful reunification,” the statement added.

The other red lines were democracy and human rights, China's “way and system” and its “right to development.”

Beijing maintains U.S. criticism of its human rights record, including its treatment of Muslim Tibetans and Uighurs and China's crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong, as interference in its internal affairs.

Xi also commented on current sensitive issues for the Asia-Pacific region, such as China's territorial disputes with its neighbors, particularly the US-allied Philippines, in the South China Sea, which Xi said should be managed through “interstate dialogue and consultation” and that the United States should not get involved.

He also stressed that China remains neutral in the war between Russia and Ukraine and cited tense tensions between North and South Korea, which have further increased since the North deployed thousands of soldiers to join the Russian war against Ukraine.

“China does not allow conflicts and unrest to arise on the Korean Peninsula. It will not stand idly by when its strategic security and core interests are threatened,” he was quoted as saying by the ministry.

News week contacted the Chinese Foreign Ministry with a written request for comment.

Analysts have weighed in on what Xi's statement portends for the future.

“Xi is trying to persuade the United States that restraining Lai will advance U.S. interests in maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. He is not satisfied with the U.S. response to Lai's statements,” he said. said Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the German Marshall Fund's Indo-Pacific. Program, wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“The inclusion of democracy and human rights shows China’s increased confidence that its efforts to redefine these terms are bearing fruit.”

As for his statement on Korea, Glaser wrote: “Xi expresses dissatisfaction with the expansion of cooperation between the United States, Japan and South Korea. The statement comes just after Xi's comments on Ukraine and suggests he views the United States as exploiting North Korea's involvement in Russia's war in ways that threaten the PRC's interests ( People's Republic of China). »

Wen-Ti Sung, a policy analyst and non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, noted that China's red lines focused on domestic concerns and Taiwan.

Xi sought to “set the tone for U.S.-China conversations on Taiwan under the Trump administration,” Sung said.

The Chinese leader's message was also aimed at US partners and allies in other regions, the analyst said. “China must be tough on Taiwan so that it can have the right to speak softly towards other countries like Southeast Asia and Europe.”

Before their meeting began, Biden praised the progress both sides had made since their previous physical meeting last year at the APEC summit in San Francisco.

These included cooperation in counternarcotics and resuming military leader-to-leader communication, according to a White House transcript. The two leaders also agreed that humans rather than AI should maintain control over the use of nuclear weapons, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.