So many issues in 2-hr Biden-Xi phone talk

UNITED States President Joseph Biden and China President Xi Jinping spoke by phone for two hours last Thursday. It was the first time for the two leaders to speak with each other since Biden assumed the presidency on January 30. That it lasted two hours speaks of the many concerns and issues between their two countries.

During his term, former President Trump had started to impose sweeping US tariffs on Chinese imports for its alleged unfair trade practices that had led to a huge trade gap in favor of China. The US came to impose tariffs on $550 billion worth of Chinese goods, countered by China with its own tariffs on $185 billion of US goods. After so many talks between President Trump and President Xi and their trade officials, they signed a Phase One Deal on January 15, 2020, including a rollback of tariffs, expansion of trade purchases, renewal of commitments on intellectual property, technology transfer, and currency practices.

The US and China are now the two biggest economic powers in the world and their relations are bound to affect trade around the world. It would be best if the bitter exchange of tariffs during the Trump administration will now give way to agreements that would also benefit all other trading nations of the world.

The Biden-Xi phone talk last Thursday was not just about trade relations. It covered a broad range of other issues. The White House said President Biden underscored his concerns about China’s crackdown in Hong Kong, alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang province, and China’s assertive actions in the region, including Taiwan. China’s state media, in its report on the phone call, said President Xi emphasized the issues were “China’s internal affairs and are related to China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The two leaders spoke about climate change and weapons proliferation, two issues in which the two nations are the world’s leading protagonists today. And they took up the issue that is now the top concern of the entire world – the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which began in Wuhan province in China in December, 2019, and spread around the world, with the US now having the most deaths and infections among all nations.

With so many concerns and issues involving the two countries, it is no wonder that it took President Biden and President Xi a marathon two-hour overseas phone talk and even then, they must have been able to air their respective concerns very briefly.

It was a beginning which, we hope, will lead quickly to formal agreements that will help solve some of the most critical problems facing the world today.