Joe Biden and Xi Jinping had their fifth remote conversation : an interview of over two hours to keep the communication channels open but also a frank exchange to redesign the framework of relations between the US and China .
For the two countries it is a very delicate moment : from the hypothesis of a trip by Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan to the dispute over the duties imposed at the time by Donald Trump to the failure of China to condemn Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.
On Taiwan, the US president reassured the Chinese leader of the United States' support for the "One China" policy but also warned him that no coups will be tolerated. "US policy" on the island "has not changed", reads the note released by the White House after the two-hour and 17-minute interview between the two leaders.
Biden nevertheless wanted to emphasize to Xi that Washington is "firmly opposed to unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Strait". Xi Jinping warned the United States that "anyone who plays with fire will burn" . "Both sides of the Strait of the island belong to a single China", thundered the Chinese president, reiterating his "firm opposition to separatism" and "the interference of external forces". "We will never leave room for independence forces", the leader of Beijing made clear.
As for the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump on billions of dollars of Chinese products, Biden said he was convinced that the taxes decided by the previous administration were one of the causes of the record inflation in the United States and the soaring costs for families and American small and medium-sized enterprises but has not yet made the decision to cancel them. This has greatly unnerved the Chinese authorities.
Finally , the war in Ukraine . According to Chinese state media, the conflict was one of the topics addressed. Xi generically spoke of the leading role that the two countries must play "in maintaining peace and security and in promoting global development and prosperity". This, underlined the Chinese president, "is the responsibility of the two major powers, China and the United States".
