Alexis Guilleux, edited by Ophélie Artaud
The American president and the Chinese leader spoke on the phone on Thursday. In addition to their mutual desire to meet for the first time since the arrival of Joe Biden at the White House, the two men returned at length to the question of Taiwan. China is particularly opposed to the arrival of Nancy Pelosi on the island.
Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, China’s number one, spoke on the phone on Thursday afternoon. This is the fifth interview between the two men since the arrival of President Biden at the White House. The exchange was sometimes quite muscular. Taiwan has been talked about a lot.
A meeting in perspective
The two leaders have instructed their respective teams to organize such a meeting. It would be the first between the two men since Joe Biden came to power and it symbolizes the will of both countries to keep the channels of discussion open despite deep tensions and disagreements. Described as “sincere”, “frank” and “direct”, the discussion mainly focused on the Taiwan issue, with harsh words from Xi Jinping.
He warned his American counterpart not to play with fire on this subject. Joe Biden for his part recalled that the American position on Taiwan has not changed and that they are in favor of Taiwanese independence. Washington still firmly opposes any attempt to change the status quo in the region. China has been particularly upbeat since the announcement of a potential visit by Nancy Pelosi there. The patron of the Democrats in Congress could visit the island in the coming weeks.
The United States will have to assume all the consequences of such a visit, warned Beijing. And if this possible trip is not unanimous in Washington either, an American aircraft carrier and its submarine and naval air escort still arrived yesterday in the South China Sea. A routine patrol for a free and open Indo-Pacific region, the Pentagon assured.