Biden Warns of Open Conflict with China in US-China Virtual Meeting

At the start of a virtual meeting with US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the latter said on Tuesday that he was happy to meet his "old friend. The Chinese leader implies to US President Biden.

The Chinese president added that Washington and Beijing must face many challenges and should increase communication and cooperation, noting at the same time that there is a need for "stable and logical relations" between the two countries, and they should respect each other.

Xi also stressed that he is willing to push Sino-US relations into a "positive direction" and that he is looking forward to "broad and comprehensive" discussions with Biden, affirming that relations between Washington and Beijing are necessary to address global challenges such as climate change and the coronavirus.

In turn, US President Joe Biden said they have a responsibility as leaders to ensure that China-US relations do not veer into open conflict.

It is noteworthy that the American “Bloomberg” news network, quoting well-informed sources on November 10, stated that US President Joe  Biden will hold a virtual meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, next week.

Bloomberg quoted the two anonymous sources as saying that talks are still underway then regarding setting a day for holding the virtual summit, and one of them indicated that the meeting will not address the issue of reopening the US Consulate in Chengdu and the Chinese Consulate in Houston, which were closed last year due to political tension between the two countries.

Bloomberg pointed out that the virtual meeting comes in light of the improvement in relations between Washington and Beijing in recent months, in spite of complicated disputes over Taiwan and rising concerns in Washington about the expansion of China’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

The White House said earlier that it wants to upgrade  the talks to the level of leaders, in the hope that the two presidents can agree on guarantees that the competition between the United States and China does not turn into an armed conflict, according to “Bloomberg.”

However, the US Naval Institute (USNI) has released satellite images of full-size models of the aircraft carrier “Gerald R. Ford” and the destroyer “Arleigh Burke” lined up in the Taklamakan Desert in central China.

The site where the “American Fleet” appeared is located next to the test site where the People’s Liberation Army tested early versions of the DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile. The images show that China continues to focus on aircraft carrier combat and attack ships.