Biden and Xi’s 4-Hour Meeting Results in Modest Agreements Amid Stark Differences
U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping emerged Wednesday from their first face-to-face meeting in a year vowing to stabilize their fraught relationship and showcasing modest agreements to combat illegal fentanyl and re-establish military communications. But there were still deep differences on economic competition and global security threats.
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00:00 I'm pleased to announce that,
00:01 after many years of being on hold,
00:04 we are restarting cooperation between the United States
00:07 and PRC on counter-narcotics.
00:09 In 2019, you may remember, China took action
00:14 to greatly reduce the amount of fentanyl
00:16 shipped directly from China to the United States.
00:19 But in the years since that time,
00:22 the challenge has evolved from finished fentanyl
00:25 to fentanyl chemical ingredients and --
00:27 and pill presses, which are being shipped without control.
00:31 And, by the way, some of these pills
00:33 are being inserted in other drugs, like cocaine.
00:36 A lot of people are dying.
00:38 More people in the United States between the ages of 18 to 49
00:41 die from fentanyl than from guns,
00:43 car accidents, or any other cause, period.
00:46 So, today, with this new understanding,
00:49 we're taking action to significantly reduce
00:52 the flow of precursor chemicals and pill presses
00:55 from China to the Western Hemisphere.
00:57 It's going to save lives,
00:58 and I appreciate President Xi's commitment on this issue.
01:02 And in the months ahead, we're going to continue to preserve
01:05 and pursue high-level diplomacy with the PRC in both directions
01:09 to keep the lines of communication open,
01:11 including between President Xi and me.
01:14 He and I agreed that each of us could pick up the phone,
01:17 call directly, and we'd be heard immediately.
01:19 I also stressed the importance of peace and stability
01:21 in the Taiwan Straits.
01:23 It's clear that we object to Beijing's
01:27 non-market economic practices and disadvantage --
01:30 that disadvantage American businesses and workers,
01:34 and we'll continue to address them.
01:35 And I named what I thought a number of those were.
01:37 Well, look, he is -- I mean, he's a dictator in the sense
01:40 that he is a guy who runs a country
01:43 that is a communist country that's based on a form
01:46 of government totally different than ours.
01:49 Anyway, you know --
01:50 [BLANK_AUDIO]