US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed to resume communications between the two militaries and work to curb fentanyl production, showing tangible progress in their first face-to-face talks in a year, Reuters reported.
Biden and Xi met for about four hours on the outskirts of San Francisco to discuss issues that have strained US-China relations. Burning differences remain, especially over Taiwan.
In a significant development, the two governments plan to resume military contacts that China suspended after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022.
“We are back to direct, open clear direct communication on a direct basis,” said Biden.
In addition, Biden said he and Xi agreed to high-level communication.
“He and I agreed that each of us can take the phone call directly and we will be heard immediately,” he said.
But in a comment likely to irritate the Chinese, Biden later told reporters that he had not changed his view that Xi was a dictator.
Biden and Xi entered the talks to iron out a rocky period in relations that soured after a Chinese surveillance balloon reportedly flew over the United States and was shot down by a US fighter jet in February.
“Well, look, he is. I mean, he’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a country that’s a communist country,” Biden said.
Xi told Biden that the negative attitudes of the Communist Party in the United States were unfair, a US official told reporters after the meeting.
Biden and Xi came into the talks looking to smooth over a rocky period in relations that took a turn for the worse after a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon transited the United States and was shot down by a U.S. fighter jet in February.
The White House said Biden raised areas where Washington has concerns, including detained U.S. citizens, human rights in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong and Beijing’s aggressive activities in the South China Sea.
“Just talking, just being blunt with one another so there’s no misunderstanding,” Biden said, Reuters reports.
Photo: AP file photo
