U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed Thursday to engage in areas where they both agree and disagree, the White House said, but they were apparently divided over how to ease lingering tensions between the world's two major powers.
The agreement was reached during their second phone talks since Biden took office in January, with the White House saying that their discussion touched on the "responsibility of both nations to ensure competition does not veer into conflict."
Xi, however, was quoted by the country's state-run media as telling Biden that U.S. policy toward Beijing has caused serious difficulties in bilateral ties.
Biden and Xi held talks ahead of a summit of the so-called Quad grouping of four democracies -- the United States, Japan, India and Australia. The four countries' leaders are expected to exchange views on how to tackle security and the economic threat from China.
The White House said in a statement, "The two leaders had a broad, strategic discussion in which they discussed areas where our interests converge, and areas where our interests, values and perspectives diverge."
"They agreed to engage on both sets of issues openly and straightforwardly," it added, without referring to how Biden's administration has been trying to work together with the Chinese leadership.
Xi was quoted by the state-run media as telling Biden that the United States should respect China if Washington wants to promote dialogue with Beijing about matters such as the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic and climate change.
Earlier this month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told U.S. climate envoy John Kerry during the U.S. official's visit to Tianjin in northeastern China that bilateral strains would make it difficult for them to join hands in the climate field.
All eyes are on whether Biden and Xi will hold their first direct meeting since the current U.S. administration was launched, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Italy in late October.
During Thursday's conversation, which Reuters reported lasted 90 minutes, Biden underscored the United States' "enduring interest in peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and the world," the White House said.
The talks between the U.S. and Chinese leaders took place as the Biden administration has completed its withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan to end the longest U.S. war in history, hoping to focus more on new challenges posed by autocratic nations.
The United States, Japan, Australia and India are making arrangements to hold their first-ever in-person summit meeting later this month, according to sources familiar with Japan-U.S. relations, a move that could be seen as part of efforts to push back China's growing assertiveness in the region.
The first Biden-Xi phone talks took place in February.
Biden at that time raised a number of thorny issues including Beijing's coercive economic practices, human rights abuses against the Muslim Uyghur minority in the Xinjiang region and "increasingly assertive actions" toward Taiwan.
But the White House statement released Thursday did not clarify whether Biden specifically mentioned his concerns over the Xinjiang situation or Taiwan during the more recent phone talks.
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