Joe Biden has first call with Xi Jinping since taking office

Joe Biden has held his first call with Xi Jinping since entering the White House, just days after his secretary of state warned Beijing that Washington would hold China accountable for its “abuses”.

The White House said the US and Chinese presidents spoke on Wednesday evening Washington time, adding that Biden offered well wishes to Xi for the lunar new year but also raised concerns about a range of issues.

“President Biden underscored his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices, crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan,” the White House said. “President Biden committed to pursuing practical, results-oriented engagements when it advances the interests of the American people and those of our allies.”

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, last week spoke to his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, in the first high-level interaction between the countries since Biden became president.

Ahead of the call, a senior US official said Biden had planned to raise a number of issues with Xi, including China’s crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and its repression of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang.

“The president will raise [Hong Kong and Xinjiang] directly with Xi Jinping on the call . . . and indicate that this is not just about American values, it’s about universal values,” the official said. “It is about obligations that China itself has signed on to with respect to core international agreements.”

Blinken last month said the US viewed the detention of an estimated 1m Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang as “genocide”.

The scale of the repression has sparked calls for countries to boycott the 2022 winter Olympics in Beijing. Asked if Biden would raise the games in the call, the senior US official said it would “not be on the agenda”.

He said Biden intended to outline his concerns about China’s “aggressive activities and abuses” and raise possible areas for co-operation. The official added Biden did not support how Trump implemented his policy but agreed that the US was engaged in “intense strategic competition” with China.

During the Trump administration, US-China relations reached their lowest point since diplomatic ties were established four decades ago, as the former US president took an aggressive stance over everything from Beijing’s trade practices to concerns about cyber espionage.

Another senior US official who has spent the past two weeks talking to US allies in Europe and Asia said there was a growing consensus that China’s behaviour was a concern, including “unprecedented economic attacks” towards Australia and “really aggressive actions” against Taiwan.

The Financial Times reported that Chinese warplanes entered Taiwan’s air defence zone just after Biden’s inauguration and simulated missile attacks on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier in the South China Sea.

Chinese officials had hoped Biden’s election victory would help stabilise relations. But early signs from the administration suggest the path will not be smooth. There is also bipartisan consensus in Congress that Washington must be tougher on China.

Biden on Sunday told CBS News that China would face “extreme competition” from the US. While he praised his Chinese counterpart — whom he knows from his time as Barack Obama’s vice-president — as “very bright”, he said he “doesn’t have a democratic . . . bone in his body”.

Blinken told Yang last week the US would stand up for democracy and human rights, signalling a hawkish stance towards China.

“I made clear the US will . . . hold Beijing accountable for its abuses of the international system,” Blinken wrote on Twitter following the call.

In response, Yang warned the US not to interfere in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, saying “no one can stop the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”.

Jake Sullivan, US national security adviser, said Biden was prepared to “impose costs for what China is doing in Xinjiang, what it is doing in Hong Kong, for the bellicosity and threats that it is projecting towards Taiwan”.

Yang expressed hope that the nations could improve ties in a speech to a US audience last week but warned Biden not to cross any “red lines”, including by interfering in Hong Kong or Xinjiang.

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