U.S. President Joe Biden said he told Xi Jinping he would work with him if it benefited Americans.
Biden spoke with Chinese Communist Party President Xi Jinping on New Year’s Eve, Thursday (Feb. 11) Beijing Time. It was the first time a new U.S. president has spoken with a Chinese leader since taking office.
Biden’s official presidential Twitter account summarized the call in a tweet Thursday night, saying, “I spoke with President Xi today to extend good wishes to the Chinese people for the Chinese New Year. I also shared concerns about Beijing’s economic practices, human rights violations and coercion against Taiwan.”
Biden added, “I told him (Xi Jinping) that I would work with China if it was good for the American people.”
I spoke today with President Xi to offer good wishes to the Chinese people for Lunar New Year. I also shared concerns about Beijing’s economic practices, human rights abuses, and coercion of Taiwan. I told him I will work with China when it benefits the American people.
- President Biden (@POTUS) February 11,2021
Biden’s tweets were weaker in tone and slightly different in content than the White House communication sent earlier. For example, Biden’s tweet said he told Xi he would work with him when it was in the interest of Americans, while the official White House text said he would “engage pragmatically and results-oriented” with China “when it is in the interest of the American people and our allies.
In addition, the release highlights Biden’s strong criticism of Chinese Communist Party misconduct. “President Biden emphasized his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices, its crackdown on Hong Kong (democracy), its human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and its increasingly assertive actions (in the Indo-Pacific region), including toward Taiwan,” the release said. The communications release said.
White House Background Briefing Biden Wants U.S., China to Keep Channels of Communication Open
In a background briefing ahead of Wednesday’s call between the U.S. and Chinese leaders, senior White House officials said Biden will address “a range of concerns” about China’s actions and policies during the call and also hopes to establish “an open channel of communication” with Xi.
Senior officials said Biden’s call with Xi on Wednesday night was “tough, pragmatic, clear-eyed and had a deep understanding of his counterpart on the other end of the line.
“He (Biden) also wanted to make sure that the two of them had an opportunity to establish an open line of communication and to make sure that there are open lines of communication in all aspects of the U.S.-China relationship so that we can address these challenges and also make sure that there will be areas where we have a common interest in working together, whether it’s nuclear proliferation, climate change or other issues. ” the official said.
The White House administration official also said Biden’s “prescription” for U.S.-China relations is to strengthen the U.S. domestic economic base and make investments.
Another official said the U.S. was “very cautious” in its initial interactions with the Chinese side.
As the world’s two largest economies, the U.S.-China bilateral relationship has been the most important focus on the global diplomatic stage; Biden has not spoken with Xi on the phone since taking office on Jan. 20. Former President Donald Trump (Trump) made his first call with Xi 20 days after his inauguration.
Biden first spoke with the leaders of several close U.S. allies, such as Canada, Mexico, Britain, Germany, France, NATO, Japan, South Korea and Australia, before speaking with Xi on Wednesday after taking office.
The timing of the call, however, has sparked heated debate among some Chinese and U.S. netizens, as the call came on New Year’s Eve, which is usually an important time for the Chinese Communist Party’s ideological propaganda.
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