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The recent meeting between President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping helps reveal the current U.S-China relationship. According to the White House, President Joe Biden met with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on November 14 in Bali, Indonesia. This bilateral meeting was scheduled during the Group of 20 summit , which happened to be the second official face-to-face meeting between President Biden and Xi Jinping since 2011. However, the outcome of the meeting is questionable, since many topics were discussed, but no clear breakthroughs have been released publically.
One topic was the dispute around Taiwan. No progress has seemingly been made with the Taiwan issue. The tension continues rising as the U.S increases contacts with Taiwan and is clear about its intention to protect Taiwan against Chinese invasion. Xi commented that he hopes the U.S will respect the one-China policy, while President Biden announced in his press conference after the meeting that the U.S policy against the China-Taiwan issue will remain unchanged.
Another topic was nuclear weapons. The ongoing war in Ukraine in which Russia has threatened to use its nuclear arsenal, as well as other threats from North Korea, were briefly mentioned during the meeting. Both presidents agreed that a nuclear war should never be fought and can never be won. They also shared their opposition to the threat of Russia using nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine. Meanwhile on the North Korea issue, president Biden urged China to use its leverage in North Korea to stop the nuclear tests, warning Xi that continued North Korean provocations would result in an increase of U.S presence in the region.
A third topic was human rights issues. President Biden raised concerns about the PRC’s practices in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, and human rights more broadly. He again emphasized the priority of resolving the cases of American citizens who are wrongfully detained or subject to exit bans in China.
Understandably, there was no mention of these issues in China’s readout. However, the recent incident on November 29 in which Chinese police assaulted a British BBC journalist who was covering the protest in Shanghai suggests that there will be no significant improvements on these issues in the near future.
Although there were many unsettled issues, the possibility of further engagement remains. Both presidents agreed that they will jointly form working groups to engage specific issues of mutual concern, such as climate change, global economic stability, and more. Additionally, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China to continue these discussions.
Many experts argued that engagement policy with cooperation and sharing technologies is not ideal, based on the previous failure of engagement policy during the early development stage of China in the late 20th century, which did not succeed in establishing democratic government, open economy, or introduction of human rights.
Nonetheless, the events of the last few years do not indicate the outcome of the global competition between China and the U.S., and many issues remain unsettled between the two countries.
Furthermore, the latest dispute within China of protesting against the zero-Covid policy of the Chinese government that accompanied months-long lockdowns and restrictions on everyday life is bringing instability for the Chinese Communist Party as the protesters demand the resignation of Xi Jingping.
The future relationship between the U.S and China is difficult to predict, but the path that the U.S has to take is clear. Like President Biden said, “We share a responsibility…to show that China and the United States can manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming anything ever near conflict, and to find ways to work together on urgent global issues.”
The recent meeting between President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping helps reveal the current U.S-China relationship. According to the White House, President Joe Biden met with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on November 14 in Bali, Indonesia. This bilateral meeting was scheduled during the Group of 20 summit , which happened to be the second official face-to-face meeting between President Biden and Xi Jinping since 2011. However, the outcome of the meeting is questionable, since many topics were discussed, but no clear breakthroughs have been released publically.
One topic was the dispute around Taiwan. No progress has seemingly been made with the Taiwan issue. The tension continues rising as the U.S increases contacts with Taiwan and is clear about its intention to protect Taiwan against Chinese invasion. Xi commented that he hopes the U.S will respect the one-China policy, while President Biden announced in his press conference after the meeting that the U.S policy against the China-Taiwan issue will remain unchanged.
Another topic was nuclear weapons. The ongoing war in Ukraine in which Russia has threatened to use its nuclear arsenal, as well as other threats from North Korea, were briefly mentioned during the meeting. Both presidents agreed that a nuclear war should never be fought and can never be won. They also shared their opposition to the threat of Russia using nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine. Meanwhile on the North Korea issue, president Biden urged China to use its leverage in North Korea to stop the nuclear tests, warning Xi that continued North Korean provocations would result in an increase of U.S presence in the region.
A third topic was human rights issues. President Biden raised concerns about the PRC’s practices in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, and human rights more broadly. He again emphasized the priority of resolving the cases of American citizens who are wrongfully detained or subject to exit bans in China.
Understandably, there was no mention of these issues in China’s readout. However, the recent incident on November 29 in which Chinese police assaulted a British BBC journalist who was covering the protest in Shanghai suggests that there will be no significant improvements on these issues in the near future.
Although there were many unsettled issues, the possibility of further engagement remains. Both presidents agreed that they will jointly form working groups to engage specific issues of mutual concern, such as climate change, global economic stability, and more. Additionally, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China to continue these discussions.
Many experts argued that engagement policy with cooperation and sharing technologies is not ideal, based on the previous failure of engagement policy during the early development stage of China in the late 20th century, which did not succeed in establishing democratic government, open economy, or introduction of human rights.
Nonetheless, the events of the last few years do not indicate the outcome of the global competition between China and the U.S., and many issues remain unsettled between the two countries.
Furthermore, the latest dispute within China of protesting against the zero-Covid policy of the Chinese government that accompanied months-long lockdowns and restrictions on everyday life is bringing instability for the Chinese Communist Party as the protesters demand the resignation of Xi Jingping.
The future relationship between the U.S and China is difficult to predict, but the path that the U.S has to take is clear. Like President Biden said, “We share a responsibility…to show that China and the United States can manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming anything ever near conflict, and to find ways to work together on urgent global issues.”