WASHINGTON (HRNW) – US President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping talked for the first time in seven months Thursday, with both leaders urging a path away from conflict but holding ground on fierce competition between the superpowers.
In the 90-minute call, Biden warned against misunderstandings that could lead to confrontation between Washington and Beijing, the White House said, while Xi called for a new direction in a relationship beset by “serious difficulties”.
US-China relations went into a nosedive under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, who launched a trade war between the world’s number one and two economies and harangued the Chinese government for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden’s administration, while urging multilateralism and an end to Trump’s “America first” ideology, has kept trade tariffs in place and remains tough on other contentious areas of the relationship with Beijing, such as cybersecurity and human rights.
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