US President Joe Biden met for the first time on Wednesday (February 10) with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, expressing concern over the situation in Hong Kong and the fate of the Uyghur Muslim minority.
Hong Kong: China ready to sacrifice its goose that lays golden eggs
During this call, which comes three weeks after his arrival at the White House, Joe Biden expressed his desire to be much sharper than Donald Trump on the issue of human rights.
He also pleaded for a more pragmatic approach on issues such as the climate, neglected by his predecessor.
Beijing’s “unfair and coercive” economic practices
According to the report of the US executive, the new tenant of the White House expressed his “Deep concerns” concerning “The repression in Hong Kong”, “human rights violations” in Xinjiang, and the increasingly imposing place taken by Beijing in the region, in particular vis-à-vis Taiwan.
In China, the prison of the “barbarians”
According to experts, more than a million Uyghurs are or have been detained in political re-education camps in Xinjiang. Beijing rejects the term « camps » and affirms that they are vocational training centers, intended to provide employment to the population and therefore to distance them from religious extremism.
In a rhetoric closer to that used by the previous administration, Joe Biden also denounced, according to the White House, economic practices “Unjust and coercive” from Beijing.
Customs taxes unchanged
If he has clearly displayed his desire to break with Donald Trump’s foreign policy, US-Chinese trade relations are one of the few issues where he could, in essence, be part of relative continuity with his predecessor.
A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that the new team shared with the previous one the desire to stand up to Beijing in the “Strategic competition” between the two great powers.
Between the United States and China, the battle of the Titans
However, he added, she identified “Real problems” in the way the Trump administration has approached this competition. And to quote “The weakening of alliances” from America or “The void left in international institutions which has been filled by China”.
The official also reaffirmed on Wednesday that the customs taxes on Chinese products put in place under the Trump presidency remained in place for the time being, pending a global review of US trade strategy.
Will we be able to escape a cold war in 2021?
“We have not taken a decision on this file”, he hammered. “There will be changes in our trade policy towards China, but they are not immediate and in the meantime, we are not removing customs taxes,” he added, stressing the desire of the White House to develop this strategy “In connection with the allies”.
Xi Jinping judged “very hard”
In an interview broadcast on CBS Sunday, Joe Bien warned that the rivalry between the United States and China would take the form of a “Extreme competition”, while ensuring that he wanted to avoid a ” conflict “ between the two countries.
Asked about his Chinese counterpart, he added: “He’s very tough. He doesn’t have, and I’m not saying this as a criticism, it’s just the reality, he doesn’t have an ounce of democracy in him ”.
In China, a formidable “second red empire” in the making
“I’m not going to handle this like Trump”, he added, stressing to know “Good enough” Xi Jinping for having had, as vice-president of Barack Obama between 2009 and 2017, long hours of private talks with him.
According to a US official, who spoke before the call between the two leaders, Joe Biden did not intend to discuss a possible boycott of the Winter Olympics scheduled for Beijing in 2022.
American elected officials introduced a draft resolution in the Senate in early February to ask the International Olympic Committee to withdraw the organization of the Olympics from China because of “His flagrant violations of human rights”.
