Meeting in Peru: Xi wants to work with Trump administration

China’s head of state Xi Jinping has told his counterpart Joe Biden that he also wants to work with a future US government under Donald Trump. Relations between the two countries over the past four years have seen “ups and downs”, but have remained stable overall, Xi said at the start of the meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the Peruvian capital Lima.

The aim is to maintain communication between the two world powers, expand cooperation and overcome differences, Xi continued. Only if the two countries treat each other like partners will progress be made, said the Chinese head of state. However, if one viewed each other as rivals or opponents, then this would disrupt or even set back the relationship.

For the first time in a year, outgoing President Biden and Xi met in person again. The relationship between the world’s two largest economies has long been tense. The meeting was overshadowed by Trump, who will replace the Democrat Biden in office in January. The Republican has announced far-reaching new tariffs on goods from China.

Biden emphasizes his political legacy

Biden, who is nearing the end of a long political career, said he was proud of the progress he and Xi have made. The military is now communicating with each other at all levels, experts from both countries have been brought together in the area of ​​artificial intelligence and they are also working together to combat drugs. The meeting in Lima was the third and likely last face-to-face meeting between Biden and Xi.

They didn’t always agree, but the conversations were always open and honest, Biden said. Discussions like those in Peru prevented misjudgments and ensured that the competition between our two countries did not turn into a conflict. It’s about competition and not conflict, emphasized Biden. “How we get along impacts the rest of the world.”

Delicate transition phase in Washington

Trump, who will be in charge in Washington from January, took a tough course towards China during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021 and introduced large-scale punitive tariffs on goods from China, which his successor Biden later retained. Biden has also cut off the Chinese economy from leading US technology with export bans, for example in the area of ​​AI chips.

China, for its part, responded with some countermeasures such as export controls on important raw materials. According to observers, Beijing is now likely to be better prepared for a possible intensification of the trade war between the two world powers if Trump makes good on his election promise.

According to the White House, Biden once again expressed concern “about China’s unfair trade policies” in the conversation with Xi. The United States would continue to take necessary measures to prevent US technology from being used to undermine the national security of the US or its partners – but without disproportionately restricting trade and investment.

Support for Russia by China as a controversial issue

Another point of contention between the two countries is China’s close relationship with Russia. The US government repeatedly accused Beijing of indirectly supporting Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In the spring, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a visit to Beijing that China was the top supplier of machine tools and other important goods that Moscow uses in its defense industry. According to the White House, in the conversation with Xi, Biden once again expressed his “deep concern about China’s continued support of the Russian defense industry.” He also denounced the stationing of thousands of North Korean soldiers in Russia, describing it as a “dangerous expansion of Russia’s unlawful war against Ukraine with serious consequences for peace and security in Europe and the Indo-Pacific.”

Biden meets representatives of Taiwan

During the APEC summit, Biden also met with Taiwan’s representative, former Economics Minister Lin Hsin-i. During the conversation, he reportedly invited the US President to visit Taiwan – presumably much to China’s annoyance. The party leadership in Beijing considers the island to be part of its territory, even though independent and democratically elected governments have been in power there for decades. China has long been openly threatening to unify Taiwan with the mainland using military force if necessary.

The White House said Biden also made it clear in the conversation with Xi that the US continued to reject any change to the status quo by either side. It is expected that differences between countries on both sides of the Taiwan Strait will be resolved through peaceful means. Accordingly, the US President also called for an end to China’s destabilizing military operations around Taiwan.

Biden in a weakened position

Biden and Xi met for the first time as presidents two years ago on the sidelines of the G20 summit on the Indonesian island of Bali. After that, relations between the two countries went downhill. The main reason for this was a huge Chinese surveillance balloon that appeared over US territory a few weeks after the meeting in Bali. A year ago, Biden and Xi met again for a conversation – on the sidelines of the then APEC summit in the US state of California.

Biden now has little power: in the US elections a week and a half ago, Biden’s deputy Kamala Harris was clearly defeated. The Democrats also lost their majority in the Senate, and the Republicans were able to defend their majority in the House of Representatives. So not only is Biden moving out of the White House, his party no longer has much to say at the federal level.