Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Biden held a two-hour call on Thursday that came amid simmering tensions over Taiwan as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning to visit the island next month.
According to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Xi told Biden that China was committed to resisting “interference by external forces” on Taiwan. “Those who play with fire will perish by it,” he said. “It is hoped that the US will be clear-eyed about this.”
According to a White House readout of the call, Biden told Xi that US policy “has not changed and that the United States strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
Despite the warnings over Taiwan, the two leaders agreed to hold a face-to-face meeting. “They also discussed the value of meeting face-to-face and agreed to have their teams follow up to find a mutually agreeable time to do so,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters after the call.
China has made clear that it will respond to Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, and Biden administration officials have said they fear the visit could spark a major crisis across the Taiwan Strait. But the administration insists that it can’t stop Pelosi from going, which Beijing finds hard to believe.
The US military is preparing to deploy more forces to the region if Pelosi goes through with her trip, which is expected to happen sometime in August. The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group are currently transiting the South China Sea after leaving Singapore.
The simmering tensions over Taiwan demonstrate the state of US-China relations, which are at their lowest point since Washington and Beijing formally established relations in 1979. Biden has made clear that he views China as a rival, and previously said the US and China are in a competition to “win the 21st century.”
In Thursday’s call, Xi told Biden that he didn’t agree with this characterization of the US-China relationship. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Xi “underscored that to approach and define China-US relations in terms of strategic competition and view China as the primary rival and the most serious long-term challenge would be misperceiving China-US relations.”
I don’t like this at all. Greed, and an unwillingness to compromise are what is is plaguing modern politics and it is playing with nuclear fire. Let’s get a grip on reality, and take a step back here. Muzzle Pelosi and blackmail her politically if you must. There is no reason to escalate an winnable war on 2 fronts.
Pelosi is riddled with corruption, and now another example has been exposed, but the ‘honor among thieves’ in Wash. will ensure she is protected from prosecution.
!!!
Do you think Pelosi is hormonal?…
Nah, at her age it is lack of hormones…
Any muzzling should be publicly televised. (!)
kids
Biden is an empty headed puppet. Xi should be talking to obama.
I agree about Xi… We could throw in Kermit the Frog…
Or as Caitlin Johnstone noted, Donna;
ZelBoy needs to squeeze in some time from his Vogue photo shoot to discuss the advantage of long-range missiles with Sesame Street’s Elmo.
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Forgive my laughter dear Gypsy, your idea about Elmo is excellent!
China needs to learn this about us: We are Culturally Diverse!
Donna, it makes me happy to make you laugh 😁
No need to insult puppets.
As expected, Biden got a tongue-lashing and responded with more BS lies which Xi has already seen through. The face-to-face meeting will be more of the same. China no longer believes the US administration is at all trustworthy and the Pelosi visit will only aggravate that perception. This has been the Biden pattern for the past year and a half – say one thing, do the opposite. China has had enough of that.
As with its “negotiations” with Moscow before 2/24 Washington just replies with inapposite formulaic neocon lines meant to observe the form and appearance of “talks” while stone-walling. Xi knows that the Neocon policy writ in stone these past 30 years is hegemony, reducing China to a 3rd rate power. He knows as well how thoroughly corrupt all the major institutions of US polity are, and how incapable of backing their policy. So there is no possibility of “communications” let alone “trust”; and, the only point of these meetings is to highlight to the world and his own people the naked reality of Washington in earnest of what lies ahead.
Well said RSH, well said. I also think that Pelosi is a bit of an irritant.
I’m sure I have said this before but Biden is too old for the job… (Saying one thing and doing another… Isn’t that a sign of dementia?…)
The Chinese are being a tad poetic with all the fire business. (Are they referencing some sort of nuclear spectacular?)
The Empire is going down kicking & screaming!
Color photographs are available in the gift shop!
Again, does anyone know who called for this meeting? What value did this meeting provide? 2 hours could be much better spent having a healthy bowel movement than this meeting.
My friend, if it takes someone two hours to have a “healthy” bowel movement, it probably means it isn’t very healthy. Couldn’t help myself.
LOL. I was searching for something terrible that would be even more fun than meeting with Biden. That’s how I landed on the idea. Drilling my teeth without anesthesia, jailing myself in a high security British prison, pulling my nails, and waterboarding myself were all taken. It was a poor attempt at humor.
I’m slow on the uptake sometimes. 😉
The results will be much the same.
Agreed, but more satisfying.
Aaaaaand….we Amurkin taxpayers are being graciously allowed to provide the Nancy with fighter jets and ships to escort her in “case of attack”!
I don’t know about ya’ll, but I certainly can’t think of a more beneficial way to bankrupt us taxpayers 😄
There should be a suggestion box somewhere…
Yes, China will show US the greatest Fireworks they’ve ever seen…!
Does this include a weenie roast?…
When the H bombs go off there will be a roast, but it won’t be the weenies; they’ll be safe in their bunkers under Wash.
LOL!
The root of all this is “We’re in a competition with China and other countries to win the 21st century”. The conflict isn’t inevitable, it’s declared.
I say detain Pelosi at Guantanamo. The POTUS has the authority to send anyone to Guantanamo who he deems is a threat to national security, and Pelosi is a greater threat to American lives than anyone who’s ever been imprisoned at Guantanamo. Put her in an orange jumpsuit, cover her eyes with blacked out goggles, chain her hands and put them in mittens, assign her a lawyer, and load her on the fucking aircraft. If she has a problem with it point out it’s her procedure. This would have the added benefit of maybe giving some Americans second thoughts about absolute government power, though the main benefit would still be getting Pelosi off the stage.
Mr. Christian, how perfectly stated! Might I add, they should buzz cut her hair…!
You’ll notice I left out waterboarding. Unlike her. But she doesn’t have any actionable intelligence anyway.
I think this is my favorite post of the day, meaning your post…!
It’s the little things.
That didn’t stop the CIA. Might as well get some enjoyment out of this. We can even let the CIA do it and bring back Bloody Gina to watch, record and destroy.
How ironic and absurd that the world could come to an end because of the hubris and stupidity of this overfed imitation of Marie Antoinette.
Maybe China can do the US one favor: KEEP HER.
Let the people of Taiwan decide their own fate.The people of Hong Kong were not afforded that opportunity. I rather doubt that the non-Chinese Asians relish the idea of Chinese hegemony.
“Let the people of Taiwan decide their own fate.” In that political restaurant the big question is HOW? Well, jake, how? Please explain.
VOTE!
Biden is lighting the match and Pelosi is going to Taiwan with a 5 gal. can of gasoline to ensure the Chinese fire the first shot to ensure another war starts to enrich those who will benefit: Wash., MSM and war industry.
Caitlin Johnstone has good analysis most days, so go there as well as here at antiwar.com
Xi Tells Biden Not to ‘Play With Fire’. Biden cancels summer barbecue!
Maybe Biden misunderstood?
LOL!
Frail, old, sick and not in charge. What is Xi working here with?
if i was uncle sam i would send a plane over there without any pelosis on it and i would shoot it down and pretend that china shot it down killing a bunch of pelosis who would then fake their own deaths. imagine the outrage of millions of american dimwits who would bend over backwards to swallow that fairytale.
If you think that idea is too crazy google “Operation Northwoods” or go to the Wikipedia page. Check out the signature at the bottom of the memo.