US President Joe Biden is enthusiastic about the four-hour meeting he had with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in California on Wednesday. He writes on X that “real progress” has been made and speaks of “constructive and productive” conversations. The US and China have agreed, among other things, to resume military contacts and work together against drugs.
Relations between China and the United States have been tense in recent years. It was the first time in a year that there has been a physical meeting between the two world leaders and the first time since 2017 that Xi has visited the US. China had cut off military communications when then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the US House of Representatives visited Taiwan in August 2022.
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Xi still considers Taiwan part of China, but he assured Biden during their meeting that China has no plans to take military action against Taiwan. However, a senior American official told Reuters afterwards that Xi had described circumstances under which China could take military action. Biden urged Xi to respect Taiwan’s upcoming elections in January 2024.
Fentanyl, sanctions and climate
China also promised on Wednesday to crack down on the production of ingredients for the drug fentanyl, which is claiming many lives in the US. In turn, as far as Xi is concerned, the United States should remove sanctions imposed over the oppression of Uyghurs and give China more space in the field of science and technology.
Just before the meeting between Xi and Biden, the US and China had already concluded an agreement for greater cooperation on climate policy.
At a press conference afterwards, Biden said that he still thinks Xi is a dictator. “Well look, that’s him,” said the American president in response to a question from a journalist. “He is a dictator in that he is a guy who runs a country, a communist country, that is based on a system of government that is completely different from ours.”