US President Joe Biden has said he plans to speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping by the end of this month. The two countries, in the context of the so-called Cold War 2.0, face a period of latent tensions, involving issues such as the status of Taiwan, the Ukrainian War and the possible cut of import tariffs in Washington.
“I think I will talk to President Xi in the next 10 days,” Biden told reporters as he returned from a Massachusetts trip in which he announced projects to combat the climate crisis.
The call would be the first between the two leaders in four months, and had already been aired by Secretary of State Antony Blinken after a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Indonesia.
Although bilateral meetings have brought some authorities face to face, tensions between the US and China have risen again in recent months. US military movements in the region near Taipei were met with strong rhetorical reactions, and Washington again issued warnings regarding Beijing’s alignment with Russia.
China considers Taipei a rebel province, while the US, under Biden, has reinforced its “solid” commitment to the island’s security. On Tuesday (19) and last week, American ships passed through the Taiwan Strait, angering Beijing.
Beijing also said it would respond with “strong measures” if US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the region. The trip was scheduled for April, but Pelosi contracted Covid and postponed the plans.
This Wednesday (20), however, Biden cast doubt on the deputy’s trip to Asia, perhaps scheduled for next month. According to the president, “the military thinks it’s not a good idea at the moment,” but he said he didn’t know the status of the issue. The State Department called the trip hypothetical, and Pelosi’s office declined to comment, citing security concerns.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it had a relationship of mutual trust with the US and effective channels of communication, adding that it had not received “accurate information” about a visit by the Democratic lawmaker.
Sino-American relations have also been strained by the Ukrainian War. Last month, Washington pressured NATO (the western military alliance) to adopt a strategic document calling China a “security challenge”. The US sees Beijing as its main strategic rival, and Xi forged a “boundless alliance” with Russian Vladimir Putin before the conflict erupted.
The Biden administration is still at odds with China over its breach of commitments in trade agreements and with the WTO (World Trade Organization). Despite these factors, inflationary pressure in the US could make the president promote tariff relief, easing rates that, under Donald Trump, helped spark the trade war between the two countries.
Inflation in the US reached 9.1% in June, the highest level in 40 years, and the Federal Reserve, the country’s central bank, raised interest rates by 0.75 percentage point last month. Biden is also weighing whether to combine the removal of tariffs with a new investigation into China’s industrial subsidies and efforts to dominate key sectors such as semiconductors.
CIA says China may use force against Taiwan
According to William Burns, head of the CIA, the American intelligence agency, China has started to consider the use of force against Taiwan based on the Ukrainian War, which could bring insecurity to the region in a short time.
“It seems to us that [a guerra] does not really affect the question of whether Chinese leaders can choose to use force against Taiwan in the next few years, but when and how they will do so,” the agency’s chief said during a security forum on Wednesday.
But Burns played down the risk that Xi Jinping would take action before the end of the year, although analysts believe he could do so after Communist Party meetings. “These risks are increasing, it seems to us, the further you go in this decade.”
The CIA chief also said he believed China interpreted the war as proof that “swift and decisive victories are not achieved” without strong use of military means and preparedness against economic sanctions.
