China wants US action not words, as experts wonder if Joe Biden is phoning it in

Latest call between the American and Chinese presidents continued a pattern in which talks have been followed by US measures countering Beijing

Rather than moves to repair relations, there has been further use of sanctions and visa restrictions against Chinese firms and officials

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping shared a video call in which the Ukraine crisis was discussed. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 8:30pm, 29 Mar 2022Updated: 8:30pm, 29 Mar 2022

Beijing has urged Washington repeatedly to deliver the improved relations it says US President Joe Biden promised, but events since Biden’s latest talks with counterpart Xi Jinping suggest a marked uplift is unlikely, according to experts.

With Washington continuing to make moves that upset Beijing, hopes in China of the US side working to repair relations are fading, they say.

In the two presidents’ latest call on March 18 – their first since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine – Xi attributed worsening US-China ties to “some people in the US” failing to implement the consensus he said the pair had reached. His choice of words stopped short of directly blaming Biden or the entire US government.

Xi and Biden had “directed their teams to promptly follow up” their call and take concrete action to put China-US ties back on track, according to the Chinese statement that followed their discussion.

The Chinese statement also quoted Biden as saying during the call that the United States did not support independence for Taiwan, and did not seek a new cold war, or to change China’s system or revitalise alliances against it. “I take these remarks very seriously,” Xi was quoted as saying.