Taiwan, democracy and development are China’s ‘red lines, Xi tells Biden

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping told his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden that the issues of Taiwan, democracy, human rights and the right to development constitute “red lines” for China, said China’s official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

Xi Jinping warned the United States not to get involved in bilateral disputes over islands and islets in the South China Sea or “aid or abet provocations” in the region, he said. added.

The outgoing US president and his Chinese counterpart met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Forum in Lima, Peru, for their first meeting in seven months.

“When the two countries treat each other as partners and friends, seeking to find common ground while putting aside differences and helping each other achieve success, then the relationship will have made considerable progress,” he said. said Xi Jinping when he met Joe Biden.

“However, if we see each other as rivals or adversaries, if we compete viciously with each other and if we seek to harm each other, we risk poisoning the relationship, or even causing it to regress,” he said. added.

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping also agreed on Saturday that decisions regarding the use of nuclear weapons should be made by human beings and not by artificial intelligence (AI), according to the White House.

“Both leaders also stressed the need to carefully assess potential risks and develop military AI in a careful and responsible manner.”

(Liz Lee and the Beijing editorial team; French version Camille Raynaud)