China responds to Biden calling Xi Jinping a ‘dictator’ – video

Joe Biden saying the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, is a dictator was ‘extremely incorrect and irresponsible political manipulation’, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday. The US president was asked whether he still held the view at a news conference after talks with Xi on the outskirts of San Francisco. ‘Look, he is. He’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that’s based on a form of government totally different than ours,’ Biden replied The Guardian

China praises ‘warm’ Xi-Biden meeting in change of rhetoric

China has praised the “warm” meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in California, in a marked shift of rhetoric after months of negotiations aimed at restabilising what has been a testy relationship. A readout from China’s foreign ministry said the US-China relationship was “the most important bilateral relationship in the world” and that “a stable and growing China is good for the United States and the whole world”. Official rhetoric from Beijing has moved in recent months from a more aggressive stance on the US to a more conciliatory…

Xi Jinping suggests China will send new pandas to US as ‘envoys of friendship’

Chinese president Xi Jinping signalled on Wednesday evening that China will send new pandas to the United States, calling them “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples”. “We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation, and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples,” Xi said during a dinner speech with business leaders. The gesture came at the end of a day in which Xi and President Joe Biden…

Joe Biden meets Xi Jinping in California: seven key takeaways

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping sat down together on Wednesday just outside San Francisco, on the sidelines of the Apec summit. It was almost exactly one year since their last encounter, in Bali, Indonesia. Biden said the meeting included “some of the most constructive and productive discussions we’ve had” and will lead to stronger dialogue between the two leaders. Here are seven key takeaways: 1. The US and China will resume direct military-to-military communications China severed military contact after then House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August…

Joe Biden hails progress after Xi Jinping talks but Taiwan still the sticking point

Joe Biden has claimed that his summit meeting with Xi Jinping has brought substantial progress, including agreements on limiting narcotics trafficking, restoring militaries lines of communication, and to start talking about the global risks posed by artificial intelligence. However, it was clear that after more than four hours of talks in a mansion outside San Francisco, the meeting had not brought the US and China any closer on the fate of Taiwan, which Xi reportedly told Biden was “the biggest, most potentially dangerous issue in US-China relations”. Furthermore, Biden himself…

Three key takeaways from Biden’s meeting with China’s president Xi Jinping – video

US president Joe Biden sat down with China’s president Xi Jinping for the first bilateral discussion between the leaders in 12 months. Speaking to media afterwards, Biden elaborated on three key components of the discussions including a collaborative effort to stop the flow of Fentanyl from China to the West, the ongoing threat of AI and re-establishing direct military communication. The Guardian

‘Planet Earth is big enough for two’: Biden and Xi meet for first time in a year

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in California on Wednesday, exchanging handshakes and smiles as they embarked on face-to-face dialogues that both sides hope will stabilise US-China relations. The US president opened his remarks by saying that tensions between the two countries should “not veer into conflict”. The Chinese president responded by saying that “turning their back on each other is not an option” for the superpowers. “Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed, and one country’s success is an opportunity for the other,” he said.…

US and China’s joint climate plan leaves key questions unanswered

The US and China’s decision to rekindle a joint effort to tackle the climate crisis has provided sorely needed momentum ahead of crucial UN climate talks later this month, while still leaving some key questions unresolved around calling an end to the fossil fuel era. The difficult relationship between the world’s two largest carbon emitters has somewhat thawed over the issue of global heating, with both sides indicating they see it as a shared menace set aside from other tensions around trade or the status of Taiwan. The US and…

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping to meet today in first face-to-face meeting in a year – live

Utah’s Republican senator Mitt Romney has released a statement ahead of Joe Biden’s meeting with Xi Jinping today, urging the Biden administration to be “clear-eyed in its understanding of China’s nefarious economic intentions.” In his statement, Romney said: “Our government cannot continue to chase China with offers of concessions without concrete action from the Chinese Communist party, especially in instances where they have no interest in making meaningful changes to their own behavior in the first place.” <gu-island name="TweetBlockComponent" priority="feature" deferuntil="visible" props="{"element":{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TweetBlockElement","html":" My statement ahead of President Biden's meeting with…

Xi Jinping in US for first time in six years to meet with Biden and attend summit

Xi Jinping began his first visit to the United States in six years on Tuesday just after US secretary of state Antony Blinken took a thinly veiled swipe at Beijing by stressing the need for freedoms and rule of law. The Chinese president is on his first visit to the US since 2017. He is due to meet Joe Biden at an undisclosed location in San Francisco on Wednesday morning and then attend the annual summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum. Xi’s summit with the US president…