Two hours and seventeen minutes, as long as the phone call between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping lasted, it is the fifth time that the two leaders have heard each other over the phone on the hottest issues in the world. Next time, they vowed, they will meet in person. Apparently, reading the press releases launched at the end of the phone call, the two would have had a "direct and honest" exchange to redesign the framework of relations between the US and China.
The American president reassured his Chinese counterpart about the United States' support for the politics ofOnly China, warning that hand strikes will not be tolerated. "US policy" on the island "has not changed", the official note released after the interview clearly states.
TAIWAN ISSUE. Biden pointed out to Xi that Washington is opposed "firmly to unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Strait". A senior White House official explained that there was a conversation about Taiwan "Direct and honest but differences remain". And precisely to manage these differences, the administration's source clarified, it is necessary to keep the communication channels open “as the two countries have done in the last 40 years”.
Xi Jinping maintained his position by letting the United States know that "whoever plays with fire burns". The White House refused to confirm Xi's claim.
"Both sides of the Strait of the island belong to a single China ", the Chinese president emphasized, reiterating the "firm opposition to separatism"and "to the interference of external forces". "We will never leave room for independence forces“, The leader of Beijing made clear.
DUTIES ISSUE. Another dossier that has contributed to cracking relations between the US and China are the duties imposed by Donald Trump on billions of dollars of Chinese products. Biden, in this regard, writes the Ansa, is convinced that the taxes decided by the previous administration were one of the causes of the record inflation in the United States and the surge in costs but has not yet made the decision to cancel them and has not addressed the subject in his interview with Xi.
The American president, on the other hand, expressed Washington's concerns "against some China's unfair practices that harm American workers and families ".
Between the two leaders the question of the price cap on oil from Russia, an idea not very welcome in Beijing that a week ago defined it "too complicated".
WAR IN UKRAINE. The topic was raised by Xi and Biden, White House officials reported, but it is unclear whether the American president asked the Chinese leader to take a stand against Russia, as he did in their last conversation on the 18th. last March threatening consequences in case of aid to Moscow. Now the White House believes this is a red line not yet crossed by Beijing, yet China has never condemned Russia for invading Ukraine.
In the official note released by the Chinese state media there is not much more about the conflict. Xi generically spoke of the leading role that the two countries must play "in maintaining peace and security and promoting global development and prosperity ". This, underlined the Chinese president, "is the responsibility of the two major powers, China and the United States ".