Ahead of the G20 summit, President Biden met face-to-face with China’s President, Xi Jinping, in a meeting that lasted three and a half hours. Amid rising US-China tensions, the two leaders spoke on a number of topics, including global inflation, the climate crisis, health security, global food security, and Russia’s war against Ukraine. 

“It was clear — [Xi] was clear and I was clear — that we’ll defend American interests and values, promote universal human rights, and stand up for the international order, and work in lockstep with our allies and partners,” Biden said in a press conference. “We’re going to compete vigorously. But I’m not looking for conflict, I’m looking to manage this competition responsibly.”

As expected, Biden and Xi also discussed Taiwan, a main source of contention between the U.S. and China.

“On Taiwan, he laid out in detail that our one China policy has not changed, the United States opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side, and the world has an interest in the maintenance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. He raised U.S. objections to the PRC’s coercive and increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan, which undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region, and jeopardize global prosperity,” the White House said in a statement.  

When asked if he thought China was preparing or intending to invade Taiwan, “I do not think there’s any imminent attempt on the part of China to invade Taiwan,” Biden responded. “I made it clear that our policy in Taiwan has not changed at all. It’s the same exact position we’ve had. I made it clear that we want to see cross-strait issues peacefully resolved.”

China’s summary of the meeting reiterated Xi’s strikingly different stance, saying, “[Xi] stressed that the Taiwan question is at the very core of China’s core interests, the bedrock of the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and the first red line that must not be crossed in China-U.S. relations. Resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese and China’s internal affair. It is the common aspiration of the Chinese people and nation to realize national reunification and safeguard territorial integrity. Anyone that seeks to split Taiwan from China will be violating the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation; the Chinese people will absolutely not let that happen! We hope to see, and are all along committed to, peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, but cross-Strait peace and stability and “Taiwan independence” are as irreconcilable as water and fire. We hope that the U.S. side will match its words with action and abide by the one-China policy and the three joint communiqués. President Biden has said on many occasions that the United States does not support “Taiwan independence” and has no intention to use Taiwan as a tool to seek advantages in competition with China or to contain China. We hope that the U.S. side will act on this assurance to real effect.”

In previous statements, Biden has reiterated numerous times that the U.S. has an obligation to protect Taiwan if China tries to take Taiwan by force.