As President, Biden has a ton of responsibilities. But he never could have expected this.
Because what China just sent Joe Biden is entirely horrific.
Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping reminded US Vice President Joe Biden that China intended to end Taiwan’s decades-long de facto independence – gently, if possible.
Xi told the 81-year-old commander-in-chief that “Beijing will reunify Taiwan with mainland China, but the timing has not yet been decided,” according to NBC News, citing three current and former US officials briefed on the encounter.
The White House did not deny the exchange, which took place on November 15 outside San Francisco and was attended by a dozen US and Chinese officials.
“I’m not gonna get into the specifics of the discussion between the two leaders,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Air Force One en route to Milwaukee.
“I think you can understand I’m not gonna read out that private conversation.”
“President Xi has been public and clear about his desires for reunification — that’s not something that’s different or new,” Kirby added.
The White House official went on to declare that the US will stick to its “One China” policy of not recognizing Taiwan as an independent country, and that “as the president has said, there’s no reason for this to come to blows.”
At the summit, Xi said that “China’s preference is to take Taiwan peacefully, not by force,” and said that “US military leaders who say that Xi plans to take Taiwan in 2025 or 2027 … were wrong because he has not set a time frame,” NBC reported.
The so-called Chinese “president for life” and Biden spoke for four hours, with no major updates regarding Taiwan, which has been self-governing since Mao Zedong’s Communists won the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Last year, Biden stated that if Taiwan was challenged by Beijing, the US would defend it.
Taiwan, which has a population of more than 23 million people, began democratizing in the late 1980s, following decades of strong economic expansion. Tsai Ing-wen, the island’s current president, has enraged Beijing by claiming that the majority Chinese-populated island is already self-sufficient.
Beijing has dominated Taiwan for only some of its history. It was previously ruled by Japan for 50 years, from 1895 to 1945, following nearly two centuries of Chinese authority.
Despite guarantees in 1997 that the former British colony would have 50 years of self-rule, Xi’s administration has pursued an expansionist foreign policy, including claiming ownership of disputed islands in the South China Sea and ending Hong Kong’s political sovereignty in 2020.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not react right away to a request for comment.
US-China ties are a major topic in next year’s presidential race, with Republicans claiming Biden is too soft on matters like fentanyl shipments, which have contributed to record-high US drug addiction deaths.
From 2013 until 2021, Biden’s son Hunter and brother James Biden received millions of dollars as part of a pair of commercial operations with Chinese state-linked firms, according to critics.
A House impeachment investigation is focusing on Joe Biden’s interactions with associates from both partnerships.
Former President Donald Trump, who wants to run against Biden again, claimed in August that Biden “was bribed and now he’s being blackmailed” by China, while House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told The New York Post last month that Biden was “soft” on Beijing and that “it probably has something to do with business relationships and may very well involve Hunter and James Biden and some of the deals they made over there.”
Stay tuned to The Federalist Wire.
