Chinese President Xi Jinping threatened President Joe Biden during the virtual meeting when Taiwan came up. Biden didn’t say anything.
During the discussions, Xi reportedly said that the United States “will get burnt” if it tries to assist Taiwan against any Chinese military action to unify the island democracy with the mainland, as Xi has long promised will happen at some point.
Biden and Xi “pledged at a virtual summit to improve cooperation, but offered no breakthroughs after three and a half hours of talks,” The New York Times reported.
“The call, which was initiated at Mr. Biden’s request, reflected his administration’s deep concern that the chances of keeping conflict at bay may be diminishing. Mr. Biden has repeatedly suggested that it should be possible to avoid active military engagement with China, even as the United States engages in vigorous competition with Beijing and continues to confront the Chinese leadership on several significant issues,” the paper continued.
At one point, Xi said assisting Taiwan with any move for full independence “is playing with fire, and if you play with fire, you will get burned,” according to Yahoo News.
“China will have to take resolute measures if the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces provoke, compel or even cross the red line,” Xi added.
Prior to the meeting, the Chinese foreign minister warned Secretary of State Antony Blinken that “any connivance of and support for the ‘Taiwan independence’ forces undermine peace across the Taiwan Strait and would only boomerang in the end.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Biden “underscored that the United States remains committed to the ‘one China’ policy.” He also said that the U.S. “strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” a signal to Beijing that it shouldn’t follow through on plans to take the democratically controlled island by force.
State broadcaster China Central Television said Mr. Biden offered reassurances that the U.S. would “not support ‘Taiwan independence’” and that it wouldn’t seek to change the Chinese system of government.
Why would anyone expect any kind of success when we are sending a man with dementia to meet the President of a Communist dictatorship?
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