Chinese President Xi Jinping has held his final meeting with his outgoing counterpart in the United States, Democrat Joe Biden. But Xi’s words on Saturday seemed directed not simply at Biden but at his Republican successor, returning President Donald Trump, as reported by
Al Jazeera.
In his encounter with Biden on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima, Peru, Xi emphasised the importance of the US and China maintaining “mutual respect”.
While Xi did not mention Trump by name, he gave a nod to the incoming US president’s victory in the November 5 election.
“The United States has recently concluded its elections. China’s goal of a stable, healthy and sustainable China-US relationship remains unchanged,” Xi said.
But, he warned, “If we take each other as rival or adversary, pursue vicious competition and seek to hurt each other, we would roil the relationship or even set it back.”
Xi appeared to extend a hand of friendship to Trump, encouraging their countries to work together for mutual gain. “China is ready to work with the new US administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-US relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” he said.
During the last Xi-Biden meeting, the parties
agreed to avoid giving artificial intelligence control of nuclear weapons systems, and they made progress toward the release of the two U.S. citizens behind bars in China that the State Department considers “wrongfully detained.”
