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US and China reach deal to curb fentanyl production and resume direct communications between military leaders

Biden says four-hour summit with Xi in San Francisco resulted in ‘some important progress’

President Joe Biden stood by his view that President Xi Jinping of China is a 'dictator'. Photograph: Doug Mills/The New York Times

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Martin Wall Washington Correspondent
Thu Nov 16 2023 - 06:25

The United States and China have reached a deal aimed at curbing the production of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl and on re-establishing high-level communications between their military leaders.

The announcement was made on Wednesday night by US president Joe Biden who said that “important progress” had been made at a four-hour summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Woodside, near San Francisco.

At a press conference the president said the meeting had seen “the most productive discussions we have had”.

However, he also said that he stood by his description of Xi as a “dictator” – a term he had originally used last June and which was criticised as absurd and irresponsible by Chinese authorities.

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“He is a dictator in the sense that he is a guy who runs a country that is a communist country, that is based on a form of government totally different from ours,” Mr Biden said.

The US and Chinese leaders met on Wednesday on the margins of the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operative conference at a time when relations between Washington and Beijing are at a low ebb.

The US president said that at the meeting he and his Chinese counterpart had promised to keep open the lines of communications between them.

He said they agreed that if there were concerns about anything between their two nations or events in their regions, they would be able to “pick up the phone and be directly heard immediately”.

US officials suggested that president Xi had signalled that Taiwan was “the biggest most potentially dangerous issue” in the relations between the two countries.

The US side quoted president Xi as saying that China’s preference was for peaceful reunification with the island of Taiwan, which it claims as part of its territory.

However, US officials maintained that president Xi subsequently “went on to talk about conditions in which force could be used”.

“President Xi basically said; look, I hear all these reports in the United States how we’re planning for you know, military action in 2027 or 2035. And there seemed a slight amount of exasperation in those comments. And then basically said there are no such plans, no one has talked to me about this,” the US side said.

Mr Biden, at his press conference, said that Washington’s “one China” policy on Taiwan was not going to change.

Under the “one-China policy”, Washington acknowledges Beijing’s claim that the self-ruling island democracy of Taiwan is part of China without formally endorsing it.

Mr Biden said that the deal reached with the Chinese leader on co-operation to combat global illegal drug manufacturing and trafficking would “save lives”.

He said that more Americans between 18 and 49 years died from fentanyl than from guns, car accidents or any other cause.

He said that there had been an earlier agreement with Beijing in 2019 on fentanyl shipped directly from China. However, he said, the situation had subsequently evolved.

“So today, with this new understanding, we are taking action to significantly reduce the flow of precursor chemicals and pill presses from China to the western Hemisphere.”

In an official readout published after the meeting, the White House said that president Biden had emphasised that the United States and China were “in competition”.

It indicated that restrictions on high technology exports to China would continue, despite objections from Beijing.

The White House said the two leaders “welcomed the resumption of high-level military-to-military communication”. It said both sides were also resuming telephone conversations between military commanders.

It said both leaders “affirmed the need to address the risks of advanced AI systems and improve AI safety through US -China government talks”.

“The two leaders exchanged views on key regional and global challenges. President Biden underscored the United States’ support for a free and open Indo-Pacific that is connected, prosperous, secure, and resilient. The president reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to defending our Indo-Pacific allies. The president emphasised the United States’ enduring commitment to freedom of navigation and overflight, adherence to international law, maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea and East China Sea, and the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.”

The White House said that Mr Biden had raised the issue of human rights in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong.

It said the president had also defended restrictions on China getting access to US-made advanced technology.

“The president emphasised that the United States will continue to take necessary actions to prevent advanced US technologies from being used to undermine our own national security, without unduly limiting trade and investment.”

It said the two leaders had also underscored the importance of working together to accelerate efforts to tackle climate change.

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