A meeting between Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping scheduled for only 45 minutes this week turned into a two hour ordeal and ended with the US senator-turned-second-in-command offering brief remarks but answering no questions before a press scrum in Beijing.
Speaking with reporters amid a stalemate that started late last month between China and Japan over disputed airspace, Biden made no explicit reference to the conflict but expressed a need for trust to develop between all those involved.
The relationship between the US and China, Biden said, “ultimately has to be based on trust, and a positive notion about the motive of one another.”
Late November, Chinese officials declared a portion of the East China Sea long claimed by Japan to fall within their own air defense border, causing a row to erupt between both countries and then the US, which has so far also managed to involve the likes of South Korea and Taiwan. The Pentagon soon after deployed a fleet of B-52 bombers through the region unannounced in defiance of China’s orders, then moved a next-generation surveillance aircraft towards Japan to await orders, provoking criticism from the Chinese by way of some scathing newspaper editorials, including one that ran Wednesday in tandem with Biden’s Beijing visit.
Biden was in Japan hours earlier on Tuesday, and said during a meeting alongside Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the US is deeply concerned by the recent events that have “raised regional tensions and increased the risk of accidents and miscalculation,” adding that neither Japan nor their American allies will tolerate “the attempt by China to change the status quo by force.”
When Biden arrived in Beijing shortly after, an editorial in the official English-language China Daily warned that the vice president "should not expect any substantial headway if he comes simply to repeat his government's previous erroneous and one-sided remarks.”
"If the US is truly committed to lowering tensions in the region, it must first stop acquiescing to Tokyo's dangerous brinkmanship,” the op-ed continued. “It must stop emboldening belligerent Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to constantly push the envelope of Japan's encroachments and provocations."
- When Biden finally emerged from his marathon meeting with President Xi on Wednesday, he appeared “solemn” and “weary-sounding,” according to the New York Times’ Mark Lander, and the Associated Press equated the meeting between men as an “awkward kickoff” for the vice president’s tour of China.
- Instead of directly acknowledging the disagreement between China and Japan during the press conference that followed his meeting, Biden said both nations need to make use of "crisis management mechanisms and effective channels of communication” and spoke of a "new model of major country cooperation” that rests on trust.
Xi declined to bring up the airspace rift as well, instead acknowledging only "undergoing profound and complex changes” in Asia.
“Regional issues keep cropping up and there are more pronounced global challenges such as climate change and energy security. The world is not tranquil," he added.
Next on Biden's trek through the region will be Seoul, South Korea, where he is expected to make appearances on Thursday following a meeting with China’s Premier Li Keqiang that will cap off his visit there.
rt.com
4/12/13
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Ιαπωνία: Επίσκεψη από τον αμερικανό αντιπρόεδρο. -Εν μέσω έντασης για την κινέζικη ζώνη αεράμυνας
South Korea to announce expansion of its air defense zone in the coming days ...
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Biden tells Xi U.S. has "deep concerns" about air defense zone issue...
ReplyDeleteU.S. Vice President Joe Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday that the United States has "deep concerns" about, and does not recognize, the air defense identification zone set up by Beijing, a U.S. official said.
In their talks, Xi explained his country's position on the air zone to Biden, according to China's state-run media. The U.S. official said Xi was clear in presenting his case on the issue and "took on board what the vice president said."
Xi and Biden agreed to promote practical cooperation and mutual respect, amid heightened regional concern over Beijing's recently established air defense zone over the East China Sea that encompasses a group of islands at the center of a bitter dispute with Japan.
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2013/12/259979.html
4/12/13
Xi meets Biden, reiterates China's stance on air defence zone ...
ReplyDeleteChinese President Xi Jinping held a four hour meeting with U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden in Beijing and reiterated China's stance on several important issues, including the air defense zone in the East China Sea.
For his part, Biden said that Washington does not recognize China’s air defence zone in East China Sea and expects Beijing to act towards reducing tensions in the region. However, the two leaders agreed on the need to strengthen dialogue and cooperation between the PRC and the United States to build new relations based on trust and a positive notion of each other’s motives. The sides also exchanged views and agreed to strengthen exchanges and cooperation on international issues such as the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the Iranian nuclear issue, the Syrian problem conflict.
http://indian.ruvr.ru/news/2013_12_05/Xi-meets-Biden-reiterates-Chinas-stance-on-air-defence-zone-6936/
5/12/13
Biden-Xi meeting fails to resolve ADIZ crisis....
ReplyDeleteBy John Chan and Peter Symonds
5 December 2013
US Vice President Joe Biden held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday in Beijing, but failed to resolve the highly volatile situation in the East China Sea since Beijing declared an air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on November 23 that included the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, disputed with Japan.
Washington immediately sided with Tokyo, flying nuclear-capable B-52 bombers into the zone to challenge Beijing’s authority. Biden met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday and reaffirmed the US commitment to its alliance with Japan in the event of a war with China. The US and Japan continued to fly military planes into the Chinese ADIZ over the past week. China has responded by scrambling fighters, heightening the danger of an accident or miscalculation that could precipitate a wider conflict.
The tensions were evident from the meeting in Beijing, which was scheduled to last just 45 minutes but extended to at least two hours. In Tokyo, Biden had promised to raise the ADIZ issue with “great specificity” in Beijing, accusing China of making moves to “unilaterally change the status quo” in the region. No joint statement was made by Xi and Biden, and the two leaders avoided any direct public comment on the dispute over the air defence zone.
Both Xi and Biden have attempted to play down the seriousness of the dispute, in large measure to keep the working class in China, the US and internationally in the dark about the mounting dangers of war. There is no doubt, however, that behind closed doors, sharp exchanges took place that find only a pale reflection in the remarks reported to the media by unnamed officials.
According to the Washington Post, “the vice president laid out in detail for Xi the objections of the United States, along with its allies Japan, South Korea, over China’s declaration of an air defence zone over the contested islands.” Biden stressed that the US administration “will not recognize the flight restrictions China has sought to impose.”
Xi “pushed back firmly, arguing that the islands—named Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan—have been sovereign Chinese territory and complaining the United States, Japan and South Korea have refused to acknowledge the claim.” According the Post, a central goal of the US delegation was to “persuade the Chinese not to aggressively enforce the air defence zone,” but Xi “made no promises during the talks.”
While Biden attempted to posture as a man of peace in Beijing, the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia” over the past four years has deliberately stoked up tensions throughout the region as the US has sought to undermine China diplomatically and encircle it militarily. Washington’s aggressive stance has encouraged successive Japanese governments to more forcefully assert their control over the small, uninhabited rocky outcrops in the East China Sea known as the Senkakus................http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/12/05/adiz-d05.html
5/12/13
China: US should respect Beijing's decision to set up its ADIZ....
ReplyDeleteUS Vice President Joe Biden has said that China's announcement of its Air Defence Identification Zone over the East China Sea had caused apprehension in the region.
Talking to a gathering of US executives in Beijing this morning, Biden says he was firm about the US stance on the move during talks with Chinese leaders.
Also on the same day, Chinese Foreign Ministry says China has told visiting US Vice President Joe Biden that Beijing's decision to set up its ADIZ in the East China Sea according to the international law and practice, and the US side ought to take an objective and fair attitude and respect it.
http://english.cntv.cn/program/newshour/20131205/103163.shtml
5/12/13
US will not recognize China's air defence zone, Biden tells Xi...
ReplyDeleteBEIJING: US vice president Joe Biden has told Chinese president Xi Jinping that Washington will not recognize Beijing's new air defence zone over disputed islands in the East China Sea and asked him to take steps to reduce tensions arisen out of the unilateral move.
In a five-and-half hour long meeting with president Xi over dinner on Wednesday night with handful aides, Biden had a "back and forth" conversation on the air defence identification zone (ADIZ) and a host of other bilateral issues.
"They covered every single topic in the US-China relationship. The conversation was very much a back-and-forth. It reflected the casual candor that the two leaders have developed," a US official said in his briefing after the meeting.
On the issue of the air defence zone, "the vice president laid out our position in detail," the official said.
"He indicated that we don't recognize the zone, that we have deep concerns."
Biden told Xi that "We are looking to China to take steps to reduce tensions."
On his part, "President Xi was equally clear in laying out their view of the zone and of territorial disputes in the region," the official said.
"Ultimately, President Xi took on board what the vice president said. It's up to China, and we'll see how things will unfold in the coming days and weeks," the official said.
The defence zone announced by China days ahead of Biden's visit has become bone of contention with US, Japan and South Korea, who have refused to abide by the rule that all the airlines have to register their flight paths.
The jets of all these countries violated the zone several times while China scrambled fighter planes to identify the aircraft but so far not acted against them.......http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/US-will-not-recognize-Chinas-air-defence-zone-Biden-tells-Xi/articleshow/26901214.cms
5/12/13
Hagel says China's way of setting up air zone was "not wise"...
ReplyDeleteU.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel criticized China on Wednesday for setting up an air defense identification zone without prior consultations with potentially affected countries, describing the move as "not wise."
"The biggest concern that we have is how it was done so unilaterally and so immediately without any consultation," Hagel told a joint press conference with Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the Defense Department.
"That's not a wise course of action to take for any country," Hagel said, referring to Beijing's abrupt announcement last month of the air defense zone over the East China Sea.....http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2013/12/260136.html
5/12/13