U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet and shake hands at the entrance of a conference building near San Francisco on the 15th. Woodside/Reuters Yonhap News
U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met again for the first time in a year and agreed to restore military communication channels to prevent misunderstandings and misjudgments. The two leaders also exchanged opinions on the topics of stable management of competition between the two countries and major international issues. With this meeting as an opportunity, the conflict between the US and China is expected to enter a ‘management phase’ for the time being. The two leaders met at Piloli Estate near San Francisco, USA, at around 2:20 pm (local time) on the 15th and talked for about four hours. A senior U.S. administration official said after the meeting, “China agreed to create a structure to prevent misjudgment and a forum for contact between the military authorities of both sides.” The United States has been demanding the restoration of military communication channels that were cut off immediately after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August last year, saying that accidental conflicts over the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait must be prevented. He said President Xi also said there were no plans to invade Taiwan in the next few years. This senior official also said that China promised to strongly crack down on Chinese raw materials for the narcotic painkiller fentanyl, which has become a serious social problem in the United States. The US-China summit was held again a year after the G20 summit held in Indonesia in November last year. Before the meeting, President Biden came out to the front door and shook hands with President Xi, who arrived in a car, saying “welcome.” The two leaders immediately began talks with key aides present. On the U.S. side, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Commerce Secretary Gina Lermondo were in attendance, and on the Chinese side, senior figures including Vice Premier Heifeng for Economic Affairs and Foreign Minister Wang Yi also participated. did. In his introductory remarks at the meeting, President Biden said, “We must ensure that competition does not lead to conflict,” and “It is very important that you and I, as leader to leader, understand each other clearly without misunderstandings and miscommunication.” President Biden also emphasized cooperation on climate change, drugs, and artificial intelligence (AI) issues, along with restoring and maintaining communication channels. President Xi said, “Conflict and confrontation will have unbearable consequences for both sides,” and “turning our backs on each other cannot be an option.” He also said, “The Earth is large enough for both countries to succeed.” The two sides reportedly also discussed a variety of topics, including the Ukraine war, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the South China Sea, North Korea, Chinese corporate control, and climate change. President Biden told reporters at the White House just before departing for San Francisco the day before that the main purpose of the meeting was to ensure that “when a crisis occurs, we pick up the phone and talk to each other, and the militaries of our two countries remain in communication.” The meeting location, ‘Piloli Estate’, is located 25km south of San Francisco. It was an estate owned by a conglomerate, but is now managed by a trust. The United States chose this place, which has a Chinese-style garden, as the location for the meeting, out of consideration for President Xi, and at the same time, recognizing that although this meeting is held on the occasion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in which 21 countries participate, it is a separate and important event. There is an interpretation that this is for emphasis. The fact that an expanded meeting and luncheon were held with staff present also gave more weight to the format than a typical bilateral meeting held at a multilateral meeting. The day before the summit, the United States and China emphasized their will to cooperate by announcing the ‘Sunnyland Statement on Strengthening Cooperation in Response to Climate Crisis’, which contained the agreement between the two climate change special envoys. The two countries announced that they would jointly respond to climate change through cooperation and compliance with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The U.S. and China, which tried to manage their relationship stably following the meeting last November, have been unable to find a clue to resuming dialogue after the Chinese organization’s violation of U.S. airspace in February. Then, after June, discussions resumed as high-ranking U.S. officials, starting with Secretary of State Tony Blinken, visited China one after another, and this summit finally took place. Washington/Lee Bon-young Correspondent ebon@hani.co.kr
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2023-11-16 00:59:05
