U.S. President Joe Biden said his first phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping since taking office lasted two hours.
"Last night, I was in the phone for two straight hours with Xi Jinping," Biden told reporters - an unusually long interaction for a U.S. president, with whom even face-to-face meetings rarely stretch beyond an hour.
Biden warned afterwards that if the United States doesn’t "get moving" on China policy, "they’re going to eat our lunch." He challenged Xi on human rights, trade and regional muscle-flexing during the call, which aimed at setting the tone for the U.S.-China relationship, Dawn reported.
Beijing has tested U.S. ties since Xi came to power, and under former president Donald Trump found itself on the receiving end of trade tariffs as relations frayed.
Earlier, the White House said the president “underscored his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices, crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan,” during the call.
The two leaders also spoke about the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and weapons proliferation, the White House said.
Biden also pressed Xi on Hong Kong, human rights abuses against Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in the western Xinjiang province, and its actions toward Taiwan.
Biden in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday described his talk with Xi as a good conversation.
The president, however, expressed concern that Beijing will build an advantage as economic competitor if the U.S. doesn’t move quickly to bolster the nation’s infrastructure, including highways, bridges and public transportation.
