Three U.S. officials are reporting that President Xi Jinping told Joe Biden during a recent bilateral summit in San Francisco that China still plans to conquer Taiwan but has not decided on a timeframe for conducting the operation.
In November, senior-ranking American and Chinese officials met in California as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference. After the two delegations met and made general statements of cooperation, Presidents Biden and Xi retired to a closed-door session accompanied by a smaller group of officials.
Initially, the visit was cautiously greeted as a moment of mutual respect and understanding where both superpowers sought to emphasize cooperation over conflict. However, the recent admissions by U.S. officials familiar with the summit reveal a new dimension of Xi’s global ambitions.
“His [Xi’s] language was no different than what he has always said. He is always tough on Taiwan. He’s always had a tough line,” one unnamed official told NBC News. According to the sources, the Chinese delegation also requested the Biden administration release a statement ahead of the summit approving the reunification of Taiwan within China and advocating against statehood for the latter.
The White House reportedly objected to those calls.
At one point, after Biden underscored the importance of respecting Taiwan’s domestic politics, Xi said that while peace is “all well and good,” the superpower is looking for some form of lasting resolution beyond the current status quo. After the meeting, a Chinese official posted on X that America should “support China’s peaceful reunification” of Taiwan, which “is unstoppable.”
FBI director William Burns has warned that American intelligence believes China is mobilizing for an imminent war with Taiwan by 2027. “Now, that does not mean that he’s decided to conduct an invasion in 2027, or any other year, but it’s a reminder of the seriousness of his focus and his ambition,” Burns said in February.
During the summit, Biden was joined by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of the Treasury Janey Yellen, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Jake Sullivan, and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry in San Francisco. “We also have a responsibility to our people and the work — and the world to work together when we see it in our interest to do so. And the critical global challenges we face, from climate change to counternarcotics to artificial intelligence, demand our joint efforts.” the president said during his opening remarks to the Chinese delegation.
“I value our conversation because I think it’s paramount that you and I understand each other clearly, leader to leader, with no misconceptions or miscommunication,” Biden continued. “We have to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict. And we also have to manage it responsibly — that competition.”
Meanwhile, President Xi insisted that bilateral ties could be “win-win” if the superpowers found “the right way for the two major countries to get along with each other.”
“It is an objective fact that China and the United States are different in history, culture, social system, and development path. However, as long as they respect each other, coexist in peace, and pursue win-win cooperation, they will be fully capable of rising above differences,” the Chinese leader said.
Before concluding his opening remarks, Xi spoke directly to Biden, thanking him for his “thoughtful arrangement for our meeting today.”
“Mr. President, you and I, we are at the helm of China–U.S. relations. We shoulder heavy responsibilities for the two peoples, for the world, and for history,” the Chinese president said in closing, underscoring the importance of reaching “new understandings with you on strategic and overarching issues critical to the direction of China–U.S. relations and on major issues affecting world peace and development.”
Xi stressed the need for mutual respect and refraining from interfering or seeking to “remodel” one another. “For two large countries like China and the United States, turning their back on each other is not an option. It is unrealistic for one side to remodel the other, and conflict and confrontation has unbearable consequences for both sides,” Xi said.