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Joe Biden says call with Xi Jinping due within ‘next 10 days’, casts doubt on Pelosi trip to Taiwan
- Leaders’ discussion would follow escalated rhetoric over Washington’s frustration with Beijing’s refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
- Asked about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi possibly visiting Taiwan, US president says military leaders advised ‘it’s not a good idea right now’
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US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he is likely to talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping within the next week and a half and expressed some doubt about whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would visit Taiwan.
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“I think I’ll be talking to President Xi within the next 10 days,” Biden told reporters in Washington after they travelled with him on a one-day trip to Massachusetts.
The call between Xi and Biden would come months after their last virtual summit in March. It would be the second direct meeting between the two since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the first since their defence chiefs escalated rhetoric aimed at each other at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
Biden’s claim in May that the US would intervene militarily if Beijing attempted to reunify Taiwan with the mainland by force set the scene for that forum, where Chinese Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe dismissed “the so-called Taiwan Relations Act”.
US President Joe Biden says US military will defend Taiwan if attacked
That law is cited nearly every time Biden administration officials explain US policy towards China. It authorises Washington to support the island’s military defence capacity.
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Always a source of bilateral tension, Taiwan had loomed larger recently, even before Biden’s comments about defending the self-ruled island. Beijing has accused Washington of changing its stance on the issue through greater engagement with officials in Taipei.
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