Jinping warns Biden to 'not cross red-line' as Taiwan turns into US-China flashpoint at G-20 Summit

In rare discussions designed at mending relations that are at their worst in decades, U.S. President Joe Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday that they were both responsible for avoiding their superpower rivalry from descending into confrontation. Chinese President Xi warned Joe Biden not to cross Beijing's "red line" on Taiwan, which it claims as its territory.

In an AFP report, Xi told Biden, "The Taiwan question is at the very core of China's core interests, the bedrock of the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and the first red line that must not be crossed in China-U.S. relations." 

A day before a Group of 20 (G20) meeting anticipated to be laden with tension over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Xi and Biden shook hands warmly in front of their national flags at a luxurious hotel on Indonesia's Bali island.

Biden reportedly raised U.S. concerns to China's "coercive and more hostile moves toward Taiwan," Beijing's "non-market economic practises," and behaviours in "Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, and human rights more generally" during the three-hour discussion.

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"As the leaders of our two nations, we share responsibility, in my view, to show that China and the United States can manage our differences, prevent competition from turning into conflict, and to find ways to work together on urgent global issues that require our mutual cooperation," Biden told reporters in remarks.

The White House said that U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken would visit to follow up on the talks. Even while some members of both delegations donned masks to protect themselves against COVID, neither leader saw fit to do so.

Growing tensions over a wide range of topics, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, the South China Sea, trade practises, and U.S. limits on Chinese technology, have roiled U.S.-China telations in recent years.

U.S. officials, meanwhile, have claimed that both Beijing and Washington have been making modest attempts to mend fences during the last two months.

(With inputs from Reuters)