Biden, Xi call avoided Taiwan escalation despite China’s ‘fire’ warning: experts

Xi's warning to Biden against "playing with fire" over Taiwan, though vivid, largely mirrored his remarks from the two leaders' video meeting in November.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping managed largely to steer clear of escalatory rhetoric on Taiwan in a Thursday call, suggesting that neither side – preoccupied with economic woes at home – wants a fresh crisis across the Taiwan Strait.

Xi’s warning to Biden against “playing with fire” over Taiwan, though vivid, largely mirrored his remarks from the two leaders’ video meeting in November.

“The portion of the conversation on Taiwan was extremely similar to the last conversation. Xi’s warnings did not escalate,” said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, referring to Beijing’s readout of the call.

Taiwan comprised one of three parts of the more than two-hour discussion, according to a senior U.S. official who briefed reporters. The others largely focused on Russia’s war in Ukraine and areas of possible U.S.-China cooperation, such as climate change.

The official declined to say if Biden and Xi directly broached the topic of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s yet-to-be-confirmed visit to the island, instead highlighting that Biden had conveyed that Washington maintained its long-standing “one-China policy” under which it recognizes Beijing, not Taipei, diplomatically.

“My sense is the two leaders talking directly probably lowered the temperature somewhat relative to what it would have been without the meeting,” said Jacob Stokes, an Indo-Pacific security fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

“But the structural drivers of tension in the bilateral relationship remain, as does the prospect of a visit by Speaker Pelosi to Taiwan,” he said.

Beijing has issued escalating warnings about repercussions should Pelosi visit Taiwan, which says it is facing increasing Chinese military and economic threats.