Joe Biden, Xi Jinping At Odds Over Taiwan Issue During A Virtual Summit: Report

As per the US official, the virtual summit between the two leaders lasted longer than expected thus amounting to three and a half hours.

A virtual summit between US President Joe Biden and China's President Xi Jinping. (Source: Getty Images)

New Delhi: US President Joe Biden and China's President Xi Jinping seem to be at loggerheads over Taiwan independence among various other issues in the recently held virtual summit between the two leaders.

During the summit, issues such as human rights violations in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, trade, and tariffs, public health and Covid-19 among others were also discussed between premiers of the two nations.

As per a US official, the virtual summit between the two leaders lasted longer than expected thus amounting to three and a half hours.

A meeting aimed at averting a potential clash between the US and China ended with President Joe Biden and Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping failing to reach an agreement on additional 'guardrails' surrounding Taiwan.

In the battle of disagreements, US President Biden raised concerns over the human rights violation in Hong Kong and China's unfair trade and economic policies.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the US support for the independence of Taiwan is "playing with fire". He also warned that the US' new administrative policy of teaming up with China's neighbours is dividing the world into alliances and blocs will “inevitably bring disaster to the world.”

Taiwan Issue

While the goal was to calm an increasingly tense relationship between the world's two largest economies, tensions over Taiwan loomed largely during the virtual meeting of leaders.

"Some people in the US intend to 'use Taiwan to control China.' This trend is very dangerous and is like playing with fire, and those who play with fire will get burned," President Xi Jinping was quoted by Chinese state-run media house, Xinhua news agency in its report.

The White House response to the meeting was more cautious, but Biden's reaction against Beijing's more confrontational stance toward Taiwan was clear.

"On Taiwan, President Biden underscored that the United States remains committed to the “one China” policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances and that the United States strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," the White House statement reads.

Climate Change

One area on which the US and China have lately agreed to collaborate is climate change, which provides a ray of hope for those concerned about the future of multilateralism.

However, preliminary outcomes from COP26, the United Nations climate meeting that ended last weekend in Glasgow, Scotland, reveal mixed lessons about Washington and Beijing's capacity to collaborate on global issues as partners.

Earlier on Wednesday, the two countries surprised the world by announcing that they would collaborate to halt global warming and guaranteed that the climate negotiations had substantial outcomes.

According to one recent research, it was a potentially significant step for two countries that are the world's top greenhouse gas emitters, accounting for about 40 per cent of global emissions in 2019.