With Biden and Xi to meet, China warns U.S. on Taiwan briefing
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[November 11, 2022]
By Martin Quin Pollard and Eduardo Baptista
BEIJING (Reuters) -China on Friday
condemned a White House plan to brief Taiwan on the results of a
much-anticipated meeting between President Joe Biden and his
counterpart, Xi Jinping, next week on the sidelines of a G20 gathering
in Indonesia.
The two leaders will meet on Monday, the White House said, for their
first face-to-face meeting since Biden became president, amid low
expectations for significant breakthroughs. China confirmed the planned
meeting but did not give a date.
Ties between China and the United States are at their worst in decades,
strained over issues including trade and technology, human rights and
Taiwan, the self-governed democratic island that Beijing claims as its
territory. Taiwan rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan announced the plan
to brief Taiwan about the talks on Thursday, telling reporters the
United States aimed to make Taiwan feel "secure and comfortable" about
U.S. support.
But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said any such
briefing by the United States for Taiwan would violate a U.S. promise to
maintain only non-official contacts with the island.
"It is egregious in nature. China is firmly opposed to it," Zhao told a
regular briefing, shortly after the ministry announced that Xi would
meet Biden and also attend the G20 meeting and a later APEC summit next
week.
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Several analysts have said that both sides may use the talks to seek
clarification on each other's "red lines", identify areas for
cooperation and to stabilise relations, but significant progress is
unlikely.
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![](../images/111122PIX/news_l87.jpg)
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks
virtually with Chinese leader Xi Jinping from the White House in
Washington, U.S. November 15, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Nov/11/images/ads/current/2022%20Business%20Directory%20Cover%20lda%202022.png)
"I don't think we can expect any breakthrough," Collin Koh, a
research fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International
Studies told Reuters.
"They are able to finally get to meet face to face and convey each
other's concerns to the other," he said.
Biden and Xi last met in person when Biden was vice president during
the Obama administration.
"This face-to-face meeting will provide the Biden administration the
best opportunity to test whether Xi recognises the importance of
stable relations with the U.S. to China's own security and economy,"
said Susan Shirk, an author and professor at the University of
California San Diego.
Xi's visit to Southeast Asia will be only his second foreign trip
since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When he travelled to Uzbekistan for a meeting of regional leaders in
September, he skipped a dinner with 11 other heads of state because
of his delegation's COVID-19 policy.
The G20 summit is on the Indonesian island of Bali, where Xi will
also meet with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, before
travelling to Thailand for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
summit, the foreign ministry said.
(Editing by Tony Munroe, Himani Sarkar and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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