Biden rebukes Xi Jinping for Beijing's "unfair" practices and calls on him to "respect China's interests"

US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have held their first phone call since the new US president took office. The new occupant of the White House reaffirmed that his priority is "the security, prosperity, health and lifestyle of the American people" and "preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific".  

Biden also expressed concern about "Beijing's coercive and unfair economic practices" and alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region against ethnic Uighurs, as well as the degradation of freedom in Hong Kong and aggressiveness towards Taiwan.  

The two leaders exchanged views on the fight against the pandemic, and the "common challenges of global health security, climate change and preventing weapons proliferation", according to the White House statement. These are areas in which both powers have expressed openness to cooperate.

According to China's foreign ministry, Xi Jinping called on Biden to "respect China's fundamental interests" and warned that "issues concerning Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang are China's internal affairs concerning China's sovereignty and territorial integrity". Xi at the same time sent a conciliatory message stating that "working together, China and the United States can bring benefits to the two nations and the world" and that "confrontation between the two would surely be a catastrophe", as reported by CGTN television channel. 

The Taiwanese government has repeatedly complained about China's military exercises off its coast. The island has been claimed by China as national territory since the Communist Party won the civil war and the Nationalist side fled to Taiwan. Taipei has thanked Biden for his concern over the situation on the island.  

Regarding Xinjiang, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, shortly before leaving office, accused China of perpetrating genocide against the Muslim Uighur ethnic group. According to Pompeo, they had information that the repression of the Uighur ethnic group had been going on since 2017.  

The last call between leaders of the two powers was in March last year. Since then relations have plummeted to their worst level in decades with Trump blaming China for the COVID-19 pandemic.  

During the Trump administration, Washington launched a series of actions against Beijing, including a trade war, sanctions against Chinese officials and companies such as Huawei, and has also challenged China's territorial claims in the South Sea.  

Chinese officials are cautiously optimistic that bilateral relations will improve now that Biden is president and urged Washington to meet soon. China's Foreign Ministry has said Xi is confident that relations will improve. 

The Biden administration has made clear that it will continue to press China, although they are committed to a multilateral approach. A senior US official told reporters ahead of the call that the president would make sure to always have an open line of communication with Beijing. 

The call comes after Washington consulted with allies and partners to outline its biggest concerns. It also comes after Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone last Friday with a senior Chinese diplomat, Yang Jiechi, who served as foreign minister from 2007 to 2013. It was the first high-level diplomatic exchange since former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Yang in Hawaii in June last year.  

Even then, Blinken previewed the new administration's position on human rights in Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong and the other issues discussed by Biden on the call.  

Just before the phone conversation, Biden announced the formation of a special Defence Department task force on China and ordered a review of the military's strategic approach to Beijing. "We must meet the growing challenges posed by China to keep the peace and defend our interests in the Indo-Pacific and globally," he said.  

The US stance towards China is not expected to change substantially. Biden, who went so far as to call Xi Jinping a "bully" during the election campaign, has said that Beijing is Washington's "most serious competitor". His administration is expected to change the form but maintain the substance of Trump's tough approach.  

"Preventing China from narrowing the power gap with the United States" is the goal of the new US administration, as one of China's leading policy experts, Yan Xuetong, recently asserted.