UPDATE - Biden, Xi discuss efforts to tamp down tensions

ADDS DETAILS THROUGHOUT

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, discussed on Monday efforts to wind down simmering tensions in their bilateral relationship while managing increasing competition.

During their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, Biden objected to what the White House said are China’s “coercive and increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan,” which it said undermine “peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region, and jeopardize global prosperity.”

Biden “explained that the United States will continue to compete vigorously with the PRC,” but maintained “this competition should not veer into conflict and underscored that the United States and China must manage the competition responsibly and maintain open lines of communication,” the White House said in a statement, referring to China by its formal acronym.

“The two leaders discussed the importance of developing principles that would advance these goals and tasked their teams to discuss them further,” it added.

The meeting is Biden and Xi's first face-to-face sit-down since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and comes as already strained US-Sino relations have soured further in recent months following an August visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

China views the visit as a threat to its claims of sovereignty over the self-governing island, and retaliated by suspending its cooperation with the US on a number of areas, including climate change.

During their meeting, Biden emphasized that the US and China have to work together to "address transnational challenges," including climate change, the global economy, health security and the global food crisis "because that is what the international community expects," the White House said.

"The two leaders agreed to empower key senior officials to maintain communication and deepen constructive efforts on these and other issues," it said.

"They welcomed ongoing efforts to address specific issues in U.S.-China bilateral relations, and encouraged further progress in these existing mechanisms, including through joint working groups," it added.