A conversation dedicated to avoiding a prospective conflict between the United States and China passed without any agreement between President Joe Biden and Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping to establish new “guardrails” around Taiwan.
“There was sort of nothing new established in the form of guardrails or any other understandings,” a senior administration official said. “The president was very clear in reaffirming very long-standing U.S. policy and raising very clear concerns, but the idea of establishing specific guardrails with respect to Taiwan was not part of the conversation tonight.”
That lacuna belied the convivial tone struck by both leaders at the outset of the virtual meeting, as Xi greeted Biden with the warm salute for his “old friend,” while Biden adopted a casual pose that “you and I have never been that formal with one another.” Their virtual meeting ran for more than three hours over two sessions characterized by “respectful and straightforward” dialogue — although major disputes persisted beneath the polite exchanges.
“I feel very happy to see my old friend,” Xi said at the opening of the meeting, according to a rough pool report transcript. “Right now both China and the United States are at critical stages of development … We should each focus on domestic affairs while at the same time should share a large share of international responsibilities and work together to advance the cause of world peace and development.”
BIDEN HOPES TO AVOID ‘UNINTENDED CONFLICT’ OVER TAIWAN
The opening statement outlines the ideal outcome for U.S.-China relations, from Xi’s perspective, as the two geopolitical heavyweights emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.
“The last thing either Biden or Xi want right now is a major foreign policy crisis,” Foundation for Defense of Democracies analyst Craig Singleton said Tuesday evening. “If anything, they are both suffering from mutually assured exhaustion on account of the pandemic and its associated fall out on their respective governing agendas.”
For his part, “Biden underscored that the United States will continue to stand up for its interests and values and, together with our allies and partners, ensure the rules of the road for the 21st century advance an international system that is free, open, and fair,” according to a White House readout of the meeting. “He emphasized the priority he places on far-reaching investments at home while we align with allies and partners abroad to take on the challenges of our time.”
Neither Biden nor Xi broached the subject of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, despite expectations that China would seek clarity about whether the United States will join a boycott to condemn Beijing’s repression of the Uyghurs. Yet the president did raise “concerns about the PRC’s practices in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, as well as human rights more broadly,” according to the White House summary.
Xi’s opening statement contained an implicit rejection of those human rights rebukes, visible in light of China’s expansive definition of “domestic affairs.” Chinese Communist officials insist that the U.S. has no right to criticize the crackdown on Hong Kong, the atrocities against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, or Beijing’s ambition to take control of Taiwan.
Even Xi’s greeting came with a sting, according to a former senior U.S. official. “Xi deliberately greeting Biden as ‘my old friend’ — after Biden went on record this summer expressly denying that they are ‘friends,’” Daniel Russel, who led the State Department’s East Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau during Barack Obama’s second term, told the Straits Times. “And Biden, with a toothy smile, reminding Xi that all countries — including China ‘have to play by the same rules of the road.’”
Their conversation went behind a polite recitation of loaded talking points in the American account of the virtual meeting.
“The two leaders really did have a substantial back and forth,” the senior administration official said. “They didn’t just stick to the script that they had in front of them. They did, at various points, move back and forth between different agenda items, pick up on things that one another said … recounted stories back to one another, both at points of agreement and disagreement, even quoting each other’s words, again, in agreement and disagreement.”
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And it may be that neither leader seeks more than light verbal sparring “the next few months,” according to Singleton.
“Both leaders will remain laser focused on shoring up their political base of support and addressing their respective domestic woes, rather than with antagonizing one other,” he predicted. “However deceptive, this coming detente will provide each leader with some much-needed breathing room. That is until next year’s 20th Party Congress in China and the U.S. midterm elections. After that, it is truly anyone’s guess how the bilateral relationship unfolds.”
