Joe Biden Breaks Phone Silence With China After Nearly 2 Years

President Joe Biden spoke on the phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, breaking a nearly two-year phone silence since their last phone discussion in July 2022.

The two leaders were expected to have discussed a number of issues amid the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

Context

The phone call comes after Xi and Biden had face-to-face meetings last November during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, as well as at another location in San Francisco. The meetings were seen as crucial steps in restoring normal communications between the U.S. and China and to prevent the rivalry between the two countries from escalating.

Other issues, such as Taiwan, China's economy, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Ukraine's war with Russia, were also a topic of discussion.

What We Know

During the phone call, the two leaders were expected to discuss a number of issues including countering narcotics trafficking, artificial intelligence and climate change. Other issues that have strained the Washington-Beijing relationship were also expected to come up, including Taiwan, China's recent provocations in the South China Sea and Beijing's human rights abuses.

"President Biden and President Xi will discuss the US-China bilateral relationship, the continued importance of strengthening lines of communication and managing competition responsibly, and a range of regional and global issues," a senior administration official told reporters ahead of the call. "Intense competition requires intense diplomacy to manage tensions, address misperceptions and prevent unintended conflict, and this call is one way to do that."

The phone call, which comes amid the two high-profile wars in Gaza and Ukraine, is a follow up on a commitment that Biden made publicly after meeting with Xi last fall, when the two leaders said they would pick up the phone and call each other with the goal of preventing potentially dangerous misunderstandings between the two countries.

In addition, according to the White House, Biden emphasized that the United States will continue to take "necessary actions to prevent advanced U.S. technologies from being used to undermine our national security, without unduly limiting trade and investment."

Newsweek has reached out to the White House via email for comment.

Views

Following the in person meeting last November, Craig Singleton, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) told Newsweek that despite the communication from the meeting, the countries remained on a "confrontational course."

"China watchers have seen this movie many times before, and it never ends well for Washington," Singleton said. "Despite signs of renewed engagement, both Xi and Biden remain committed to their current confrontational course, which means the prospects for stabilization remain distant at best and foolhardy at worst."

The White House, however, has said that the two leaders will continue efforts to maintain communication and "manage the relationship through high-level diplomacy and working-level consultations in the weeks and months ahead."

What's Next

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is also scheduled to visit China later this week, where she'll meet with her Chinese counterparts in her second visit to the country as the Treasury chief.

Yellen is scheduled to have meetings with economists, students and members of the business community.

"The U.S.-China economic relationship is unquestionably now on firmer footing than it was two years ago," a senior Treasury official said Monday on a press call to preview Yellen's trip. "We know that there are deep challenges and disagreements in this relationship, and that they won't be solved overnight."

Update 4/2/24, 12:05 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information and background.

Update 4/2/24, 12:45 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information and background.