WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping traded strong warnings on the future of Taiwan at a virtual summit meant to establish “guardrails” against conflict between the rival superpowers.

The video-link summit, which took place late on Monday in Washington and early on Tuesday in Beijing, lasted a “longer than expected” three and a half hours, a senior US official told reporters.

“The conversation was respectful and straightforward.” While the goal was to settle an increasingly volatile relationship between the giant economic and geopolitical competitors, tension over Taiwan — a self-governing democracy claimed by China — loomed large.

Chinese state media reported after the summit that Xi cautioned Biden that encouraging Taiwanese independence would be “playing with fire”. “Some people in the US intend to ‘use Taiwan to control China’. This trend is very dangerous and is like playing with fire, and those who play with fire will get burned,” he was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

The White House readout after the summit was considerably more measured, but between the lines, Biden’s pushback against Beijing’s increasingly aggressive posture towards Taiwan was clear.

“On Taiwan, President Biden underscored that the United States... strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” the White House statement said.

The statement reiterated longstanding US policy that does not recognise Taiwan’s independence but supports defence of the island.

According to the US official, who asked not to be identified, there was “extended discussion of Taiwan” during the summit.

Biden also raised “concerns” over wider issues of human rights abuses and mass repression against the Uyghurs in the northwest region of Xinjiang.

The two leaders have spoken by phone twice since Biden’s inauguration in January but with Xi refusing to travel abroad because of the pandemic, an online video meeting was the only option short of an in-person summit.

The White House emphasised it did not expect — or get — any concrete changes out of the summit. Rather the goal was to build on earlier contacts with Xi to manage a relationship that is too big to fail.

Speaking from the White House to Xi on a television screen, Biden said it was their “responsibility as leaders of China and the United States to ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer into conflict, whether intended or unintended”. “We need to establish some common sense guardrails,” he said.

Instead, the aim should be for “simple, straightforward competition”, Biden said, promising a “candid” discussion.

Xi, speaking from Beijing, called Biden “my old friend”, but said their countries had to work more closely.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2021