China's Coercive, Aggressiveness Towards Taiwan Is Objectionable: Biden to Xi

During his first in-person meeting with President Xi Jinping on Monday, President Joe Biden objected to China's coercive and increasingly aggressive actions towards Taiwan and raised human rights concerns about Beijing's conduct in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, according to the White House.

The White House said in a statement after the roughly three-hour meeting that Biden told Xi that the US would continue to compete vigorously with China, but that competition should not lead to conflict. 

The meeting took place as the world's superpowers sought to manage their differences as they compete for global influence amid rising economic and security tensions.

“Biden and Xi also agreed that a nuclear war should never be fought and cannot be won, and they emphasised their opposition to the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine,” according to the White House. That was a reference to Russian officials' thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons as the country's nearly nine-month invasion of Ukraine has stalled.