G20 Summit: ‘Don’t cross Taiwan red line,’ warns Xi as Biden raises concerns over Chinese aggression

US President Joe Biden (R) and Chinese President Xi Jinping hold a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, November 14, 2022. AFP

New Delhi: Chinese President Xi Jinping warned his US counterpart Joe Biden not to cross Beijing’s “red line” over Taiwan, on Monday as the duo held talks on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Indonesia’s Bali.

“The Taiwan question is at the very core of China’s core interests, the bedrock of the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and the first red line that must not be crossed in China-U.S. relations,” Xi was reported to have told Biden, state news agency Xinhua said, following the over three-hour talks.

Biden on the other hand told Xi that China’s “aggressive” actions on Taiwan put peace at risk.

After a three-hour summit, the White House said Biden had raised objections to China’s “coercive and increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan” adding they “undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region”.

‘I think that we understand one other’ Biden said of Xi, AFP reported.

Biden emerged from the meeting proclaiming there need not be a new Cold War, as both leaders spoke of the desire to prevent high tensions from spilling over into conflict.

Xi told Biden that the two countries “share more, not less, common interests”, according to a Chinese account of the meeting, sounding more conciliatory than the last three pandemic-filled years without face-to-face presidential meetings would suggest.

“The world expects that China and the United States will properly handle the relationship,” Xi told him.

Trying to scotch the notion that China is bent on usurping the United States and remaking the world in its own authoritarian image, Xi reportedly said Beijing does not seek to challenge the United States or “change the existing international order”.

On the pressing issue of Russia’s war in Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin’s veiled threats to use nuclear weapons, the pair agreed that nuclear war should not be fought and cannot be won, according to the White House.

They “underscored their opposition to the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine,” the US added.

That common cause is likely to give Putin pause as he weighs how to turn the tide of a war that his regime’s survival could hinge on.

With inputs from AFP

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