American and Chinese leaders will “discuss ways to manage the competition” between the two countries, and to “work together when our interests come together,” says Washington.
Le Monde with AFP
While waiting for a meeting in person, who still does not happen, Joe Biden must be satisfied with a new virtual summit. The US President and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, will have, on Monday, November 15, a meeting by videoconference, the third interview between the two leaders while the disputes between Washington and Beijing accumulate.
mm. Biden and xi will “discuss ways to manage the competition” between the two powers and to “work together when our interests meet”, according to a communiqué signed, Friday, November 12, the spokesman for the White House , Jen Psaki, who specifies that the two men will talk about, by interposed screens “in the evening” from Monday. She says Joe Biden will be “clear and frank about” American concerns in front of his counterpart, often described as more powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.
Xi Jinping continues to strengthen his grip on the plan, as evidenced by the adoption Thursday by the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) of a text which, under the pretext of celebrating the CCP’s centenary, especially praised Of the president. The “thought” of the strong man of Beijing “is the quintessence of the culture and the Chinese soul”, read in this document, which calls “the CCP, the army and the whole people to Unite more closely around the Central Committee [CCP] including XI Jinping forms the heart “.
The absence of Xi Jinping at G20 and COP26 Criticized
The two leaders have already phoned twice since Joe Biden’s investment. The American President has never hidden his desire to meet in person the Chinese leader, and did not deprive himself of criticizing his absence during recent G20 and COP26 peaks. It must be satisfied with a virtual meeting with Xi Jinping, who has not left China for almost two years, evoking sanitary reasons.
Joe Biden, if he rejects the term “cold war” to which he prefers that of “competition” or “confrontation” with China, nevertheless made the rivalry with Beijing the major axis of his foreign policy .
The relations between Beijing and Washington are at the lowest throughout a series of topics, from human rights trade to China’s regional ambitions, which push the tenant from the White House to consolidate the regional alliances of the States. -Unis in Asia. The tensions are still mounted by a notch in recent weeks about the Taiwan fate.
After Joe Biden’s statements that suggested that the United States were ready to intervene if China attacked the island, US diplomats returned to a more classic and more subtle line, multiplying warnings, and insisting on their desire to “dissuade” Beijing from any military intervention.
“Install the terms of the competition”
In this context of high nervousness, the Monday meeting is consistent with Washington’s willingness to maintain the “communication channels” open at the highest level, after contacts at the ministerial level that did not always have very well passed Recently.
If the White House holds so much to establish a “president’s relationship to president,” said his spokesman Jen Psaki on Friday, “not because we are looking for concrete results or decisions, which it’s not the case “. It is according to her “ask the terms of the competition”. The United States also emphasizes the need, when it is possible, to cooperate with the great Chinese rival.
The two countries, which are also the first two global greenhouse gas transmitters, have for example promised this week, in a surprise joint statement, to fight more against global warming.
“Our relationship with China is one of the most important and one of the most complex we have”, again reminded Friday the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “There are various dimensions: from cooperation, competition and confrontation, and we will act on these three aspects simultaneously,” he said, welcoming himself to find “a certain progress” of the Share of China on climate issues.