China – US resumes military communications (Update)

US President Joe Biden has met with visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco.

According to US media, they are meeting at Filoli Historic House & Garden, an estate in Woodside, California.

This is the first meeting between the two heads of state since their vis-a-vis sit-down in Bali, Indonesia, a year ago. During their Bali talks, the two leaders reached a series of important common understandings.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Chinese President Xi had noted : One is to enhance solidarity and cooperation and join hands to meet global challenges and promote global security and prosperity; and the other is to cling to the zero-sum mentality, provoke rivalry and confrontation, and drive the world toward turmoil and division. The two choices point to two different directions that will decide the future of humanity and Planet Earth. The China-U.S. relationship, which is the most important bilateral relationship in the world, should be perceived and envisioned in this broad context. For 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. Major-country competition cannot solve the problems facing China and the United States or the world. The world is big enough to accommodate both countries, and one country’s success is an opportunity for the other.

China does not have a plan to surpass or unseat the United States. Likewise, the United States should not scheme to suppress and contain China, the statement further notes.

The statement further notes that In San Francisco, China and the United States should assume a new vision and build together five pillars for China-U.S. relations, which are : Developing a right perception, jointly managing disagreements effectively, jointly advancing mutually beneficial cooperation, jointly shouldering responsibilities as major countries and jointly promoting people-to-people exchanges.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has said that the US and China have agreed to resume military-to-military communications in an effort to ease rising tensions.

“We’re back to direct, open, clear communications,” he has said.

At a news conference following the summit, Mr Biden said a lack of communication was “how accidents happen” and added that both presidents could now “pick up the phone and be directly heard immediately”.