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Chinese leader Xi Jinping has outlined his “four red lines” to US President Joe Biden.
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The hot-button issues concern China’s democracy and development.
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Xi’s comments came two months before the inauguration of newly elected President Donald Trump in January.
It will be another two months before new US President Donald Trump takes office, but China is already setting borders between the two countries.
On Saturday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping outlined his “four red lines” in US-China relations during a meeting with US President Joe Biden.
The four hot-button issues are Taiwan, democracy and human rights, China’s path and system, and the country’s rights to development.
“They should not be challenged,” Xi said, according to a statement after the meeting of the two leaders on the sidelines of the 31st APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Lima, Peru.
“These are the most important guardrails and safety nets for China-US relations,” Xi said.
Of the four issues, Taiwan is the most sensitive issue between the two countries, as Xi has said repeatedly over the years.
Beijing claims Taiwan as its territory and recently said it would never refrain from using force on the island. The area is strategically important to the US as the world’s semiconductor chip manufacturing hub and as a major security center.
But Trump’s presidency already poses risks for Taiwan.
In June, Trump said Bloomberg Business Week that Taiwan should pay the US for defense.
Trump could start his trade war on his first day
Xi’s comments came amid concerns that the world’s two largest economies could be on the verge of conflict after Trump takes power on January 20.
The incoming US president has already nominated Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a China hawk, as secretary of state. Trump has also threatened to hit China with 60% tariffs.
Despite signs that the two superpowers could be heading for rocky times, Xi and Biden sought to strike a conciliatory tone in bilateral ties during their meeting on Saturday.
The two leaders “stressed the importance of responsibly managing the competitive aspects of the relationship,” as well as avoiding conflict and maintaining open lines of communication, according to a White House readout of the meeting.
Still, Trump’s upcoming presidency is likely to bring new uncertainties, starting with trade.
“Trump means what he says when it comes to tariffs,” Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, wrote in a note last week.
Lipsky expects Trump will start his new trade war on his first day in office by trying to revive the trade deal he signed with China in January 2020.
China has committed to buying $200 billion worth of American goods over two years, including $32 billion in agricultural products. The deal expired at the end of 2021 because the Chinese did not live up to their promise, Sarah Bianchi, then the deputy US trade representative, said in February 2022.
Trump will likely try to revive the trade deal once he takes office as a “useful starting point” before the new tariffs take effect, the Atlantic Council’s Lipsky wrote.
Lipsky said he does not expect Trump to impose across-the-board tariffs of 60% on Chinese imports to the US. But he wrote that there will be “real and tangible new tariffs,” the effects of which will spill over into the global economy.
Read the original article on Business Insider
