Xi to Biden: U.S. policy toward China has caused serious difficulties
Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden held "frank and in-depth strategic talks" on Friday during their first phone call in seven months, China's state media reported.
According to Xinhua, President Xi "received a phone call on Friday morning from his US counterpart Joe Biden, during which the two leaders held frank, in-depth and wide-ranging strategic communications and exchanges on bilateral relations and related issues of mutual concern."
State television network CCTV quoted a brief official statement as saying that Xi told Biden that US policy toward China had caused "serious difficulties" and emphasized that getting relations between the two countries back on track was crucial "for the fate of the world."
"Our two countries and the whole world will suffer if there is a Sino-US confrontation," Xi told Biden, according to the same source.
"The future and destiny of the world depends on the ability of China and the United States to properly manage their relations. This is the question of the century that the two countries have to answer."
Lower-level talks between the two countries have not gone well, notably one in Anchorage, Alaska, in March that was marred by tense exchanges between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and senior Chinese officials.
"We were not very pleased with the behavior of our interlocutors," a senior White House official told reporters, adding that in the face of this impasse, "President Biden recognized the importance of speaking to President Xi directly."
The list of differences between Washington and Beijing is long and growing. In addition to trade, there is also the issue of Taiwan and the waters over which China disputes sovereignty with its neighbors in the South China Sea.
The U.S. official emphasized that the phone call between Biden and Xi, which lasted about 90 minutes, was aimed at "keeping channels of communication open."
The conversation focused on economic issues, climate change and the coronavirus, the senior U.S. official said.
