China’s Xi tells Biden: Taiwan issue is ‘first red line’ not to be crossed

Chinese President Xi Jinping told US President Joe Biden during their first face-to-face meeting since 2017 that the Taiwan issue was “the core of China’s main interests” and the “first red line” in bilateral ties. , which should not be crossed.

At a meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali, the first between the two leaders since Biden became president, Xi urged the US leader to translate the country’s commitments to Beijing on Taiwan into concrete action.

“The Taiwan issue is at the heart of China’s core interests, the foundation of the political foundation of China-US relations, and the first red line that must not be crossed in China-US relations,” Xi said in a statement published by the agency. of Xinhua news.

Beijing sees Taiwan as an inalienable part of China.

The self-governing island’s democratically elected government rejects Beijing’s claims to sovereignty over it, while the United States has often been accused by China of encouraging Taiwan’s independence in recent years.

Biden says there is no “imminent attempt” by China to invade Taiwan

In an announcement to the press after the meeting, the US president said he did not interpret any “imminent attempt” by China to invade self-governing Taiwan after meeting for more than three hours with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Biden said in his talks that he made it clear that US policy towards Taiwan has not changed, despite saying four times before the talks that the US would defend Taiwan militarily if China moves to the autonomous island.

“I made it clear that we want to see cross-strait issues resolved peacefully, so that we never get to that,” Biden said of any potential conflict over Taiwan.

“I’m convinced he understood exactly what I was saying,” Biden said of the Taiwan conversation.

(With input from Simone McCarthy, Nectar Gan, Betsy Klein of CNN; edited by Gareth Jones)