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04-04-2024
WASHINGTON/ BEIJING: US President Joe Biden sought to manage tensions over the South China Sea and Taiwan’s May presidential inauguration in a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, their first direct talks since meeting in November.
Biden used the call to emphasize “the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the rule of law and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea,” the White House said in a statement.
Xi said ties between the China and the US are beginning to stabilize, but warned that they could “slide into conflict or confrontation,” according to China’s official Xinhua news agency.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told a briefing after the call that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken would travel to China in the coming weeks. That follows a trip this week by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
The nearly two-hour call between the leaders described by Kirby as “business-like” comes ahead of meetings next week between Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos as China flexes its military might.
On Monday, a senior US administration official said the US and Chinese militaries would hold maritime talks this week in Honolulu. Washington has expressed concern over China’s coast guard’s use of water cannons on Philippines vessels near Second Thomas Shoal in a disputed section of the South China Sea.
An escalating diplomatic row and recent maritime run-ins between the two Asian countries has made it a potential flashpoint between the US and China.
Beijing claims vast portions of the South China Sea, sometimes in direct opposition to international law.
“China seems determined to continue to run these gray zone operations, driving the US-Philippine alliance and Philippines-Japan security ties closer, which we’ll see on display next week,” said Gregory Poling, a South China Sea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, referring to the trilateral summit in Washington.
Xi and Biden also discussed US efforts to block certain US technologies, including advanced semiconductors, from export to China.
Xi warned Biden that the US is “not de-risking but creating risks” by suppressing China’s trade and technology development and adding new entities to US sanctions lists.
Biden told Xi the US “will continue to take necessary actions to prevent advanced US technologies from being used to undermine our national security, without unduly limiting trade and investment,” according to the White House.
Kirby said Biden broached US concerns about popular social media app TikTok, which faces proposed US legislation that would force its Chinese-owner ByteDance to divest over data security and disinformation concerns.
“He made it clear to President Xi that this was not about a ban of the application, but rather our interest in divestiture so that the national security interests, and the data security of the American people can be protected,” Kirby said. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
