Zurich: With tensions rising between the global powers, President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to hold a virtual meeting before year’s end, a senior Biden administration official said Wednesday.

The agreement in principle for the talks was disclosed after White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi met for six hours in Zurich.

The official said the idea for the presidential meeting was proposed after Biden, who spent a substantial amount of time with Xi when the two were vice presidents, mentioned during their call last month that he would like to be able to see Xi again.

Details for their meeting are yet to be worked out, according to the US official, who was not authorised to comment publicly on the talks between Sullivan and Yang and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Xi has not left China during the coronavirus pandemic and is not expected to attend in person the upcoming Group of 20 summit in Rome and a UN climate conference in Scotland.

A White House statement on the Swiss meeting said Sullivan stressed to Yang the need to maintain open lines of communication, while raising concerns about China’s recent military provocations against Taiwan, human rights abuses against ethnic minorities and Beijing’s efforts to squelch pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong.

Sullivan made clear that while the United States would “continue to invest in our own national strength,” it sought better engagement at a senior level “to ensure responsible competition,” the statement said.

US officials have expressed frustration that interactions with high-level Chinese counterparts, including Yang, in the early stages of Biden’s presidency have been less than constructive.

But the talks on Wednesday were described as respectful, constructive and perhaps the most in-depth between the sides since Biden took office in January, according to the administration official.

The White House said the meeting was intended to serve as a follow-up to last month’s call between Biden and Xi in which Biden stressed the need to set clear parameters in their competition.

Still, the US-China relationship has been under strain, exacerbated recently by the Chinese military’s flying dozens of sorties near the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday reiterated concerns that Beijing was undermining regional peace and stability with its “provocative” action. China sent a record 56 fighter planes toward Taiwan on Monday alone.

“We strongly urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure and coercion directed at Taiwan,” said Blinken, who was in Paris for talks with French officials.

At the start of Biden’s presidency, he pledged to press Beijing on its human rights record. His administration has affirmed the US position, first made late in the Trump administration, that China’s repression of Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in its northwest Xinjiang region was “genocide.”

In March, the United States, in coordination with the European Union, United Kingdom and Canada, imposed sanctions on top communist party officials for their roles in detaining and abusing Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.

At June’s Group of Seven summit in England, Biden successfully pressed fellow leaders to include specific language criticizing China’s use of forced labour and other human rights abuses in the leaders’ joint statement.

Human rights advocates and Republican lawmakers in the U.S. have raised concerns that the administration might be easing pressure on human rights as it looks for cooperation from Beijing on the global effort on climate change and in thwarting North Korea’s nuclear programme.

The White House said last week it did not have a position on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which was passed by the US Senate in July.

US Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican and sponsor of the legislation, wrote in the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that “the Biden administration is choosing to ignore the Chinese Communist Party’s egregious human rights abuses to strike a deal on climate.”

The US also signalled this week that for the time being it plans to stick with tariffs levied against China during the Trump administration.

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in a speech in Washington this week, said she would begin engaging her Chinese counterparts to discuss Beijing’s failure to meet commitments made in the first phase of a US-China trade agreement signed in January 2020.

Biden has criticised Beijing for “coercive” trade practices, including its use of forced labour, that has led to an unfair playing field.

“We will use the full range of tools we have and develop new tools as needed to defend American economic interests from harmful policies and practices,” Tai said. (AP)

Press Trust of India