In their last meeting, Xi tells Biden that he is “ready to work with the new administration”

In their last meeting, Chinese leader Xi Jinping told President Biden that his nation is “ready to work with the new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office.

Two leaders they met on Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, marking their first in-person meeting since they caught one in Northern California last November. Mr Biden was expected to urge Xi to stop North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war with Ukraine.

The White House said in a statement that Mr. Biden also “expressed serious concern” to Xi about “China’s continued support for Russia’s defense industrial base.”

Without mentioning Trump’s name, Xi appeared to show his concern about the incoming president’s defense rhetoric. on the campaign trail could send US-China relations to another valley.

“China is ready to work with the new US administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage tensions to strive to change the relationship between China and the US for the benefit of the two nations,” Xi said through an interpreter.

Mr. Biden, on the other hand, has spoken in broad strokes about where the relationship has gone and is not only reflected in the past four years, but in their long relationship.

“In the past four years, the relationship between China and the US has been in a state of emergency, but with both of us in charge, we have also held effective dialogue and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” he said.

Mr. Biden and Xi, with top aides around them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in a spacious conference room at Lima’s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.

During the meeting, according to the White House, Mr. Biden and Xi both agreed to resume military-to-military communications. This comes after the head of all US forces in the Indo-Pacific held a video call with his Chinese counterpart, the commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command, in September, the first such call in years.

Mr. Biden also spoke to China-Taiwan tensionssaid the White House. Xi he said a long time ago that Taiwan, a self-governing democraciesit belongs to China, and the Chinese military always sections of the body around Taiwan in a show of force.

Mr. Biden “reiterated that the United States opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo on both sides, that we expect cross-Strait tensions to be resolved through peaceful means, and that the world is interested in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. ,” the White House said, and “he called for an end to the discrediting of the PRC’s military activity in Taiwan.”

Meanwhile, there is much uncertainty about what lies ahead for US-China relations under Trump, who campaigned promising charging 60% rates. with Chinese goods.

Bobby Djavaheri, president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances — which manufactures its products in China — told CBS News. in an interview this week that such tariffs “will destroy our business, but not just our business. It will destroy all the small businesses that rely on imports.”

Trump also proposed revoking China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, ending all imports of essential goods from China and banning China from buying US agricultural land.

Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, are shifting their sourcing away from China. A brand of shoes Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by 45% next year.

White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Biden administration officials will advise Trump’s team that managing the fierce competition with Beijing will be the biggest foreign policy challenge they will face.

A big moment for Mr. Biden as he has more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as one of great consequence on the international stage and put a lot of effort into developing that relationship.

Mr. Biden and Xi first got to know each other on a trip across the US and China when they were both vice presidents, a connection that both left a lasting impression.

“For more than a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, here in China and in between. And I think we have spent a long time dealing with these issues,” Mr Biden said on Saturday.

But the last four years have presented a continuous series of difficult times.

The FBI this week released new details of the agency’s investigation into the Chinese government’s efforts to hack into American telecommunications networks. The initial findings revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans working in government and politics.

US intelligence officials have also assessed whether China has sold to Russia machine tools, microelectronics and other technology used by Moscow to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weapons to be used in its war with Ukraine.

And tensions flared last year after Mr. Biden ordered shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that crossed the United States.