Xi Jinping's Ominous Warning for America

Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned the United States against supplying arms to Taiwan as part of rare concrete demands during bilateral talks on Wednesday at the Filoli Estate in San Francisco.

"The U.S. side should take real actions to honor its commitment of not supporting 'Taiwan independence,' stop arming Taiwan, and support China's peaceful reunification," Xi told President Joe Biden during their meeting, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry readout.

"China will realize reunification, and this is unstoppable," he said, in what were some of his most strident remarks to Biden to date.

China's president is in California until Friday to attend the annual APEC summit, but a higher priority is to stabilize relations with Washington and to air Beijing's grievances in person.

China has made repeated claims to Taiwan as part of its territory, although the Communist Party leadership has never controlled the self-ruled island in its seven decades in power in Beijing.

Beijing's increased military activity in the Taiwan Strait has raised doubts about Xi's stated commitment to resolve political differences with Taipei by peaceful means. And Xi's message to Biden was a pointed warning about Washington's role as a hurdle in Taiwan's "reunification" with the mainland.

Xi's latest remarks—unlike previous statements on Taiwan—included concrete expectations, two of which haven't previously appeared in China's official talking points at the highest level.

China's leaders have in the past asked the U.S. not to support Taiwan's right to self-determination, but they never directly appealed for an end to arms sales to the island, or for Washington's clear support for an eventual political union across the strait.

The U.S. officially takes no position on sovereignty over Taiwan; under the U.S.'s "one China" policy, American leaders since the 1970s have only insisted that cross-strait differences be resolved by peaceful means. To back China's third demand would therefore have marked a significant shift in long-held policy.

In response, Biden repeated existing U.S. positions, including its non-support for Taiwan's independent statehood, which Taipei's leaders themselves say will not be pursued.

"He reiterated that the United States opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side, that we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, and that the world has an interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," a readout by the White House said.

Before the talks, China's officials asked the Biden administration to express outright opposition to Taiwan independence, according to the Financial Times newspaper.

However, despite the public bluster, Xi privately told Biden's delegation that he had no plans to invade Taiwan, the Associated Press reported on Thursday. Biden, meanwhile, chided Xi about the Chinese military's buildup around Taiwan.

Later on Wednesday, Xi told a gathering with U.S. business leaders China posed no threat to America's national security and future prosperity.

"It is wrong to view China, which is committed to peaceful development, as a threat and thus play a zero-sum game against it," Xi told attendees at the dinner. He also warned the U.S. not to "bet against China" or interfere in China's internal affairs.

In spite of the largely cordial end to the long-awaited talks, Xi's blunt message to Biden on the importance of Taiwan was amplified widely to China's domestic audience on social media back home. The move—jointly coordinated by Chinese state news outlets—created the impression that the Chinese leader was tough on his American counterpart.

Xi's insistence that unification with Taiwan was inevitable became a trending topic on all major social media websites. On Weibo, the Chinese microblogging service, a related hashtag was viewed 750 million times at the time of publication.

The hashtag "Biden reiterates he does not support Taiwan independence" was viewed over 440 million times.