BEIJING // US Vice President Joe Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday that their countries’ relationship will affect “the course of the 21st century” as he tried to ease tensions over an air zone declared by Beijing.
Appearing sombre and subdued, Mr Biden said if the US and China can get that relationship right, the possibilities are limitless.
“This new model of major country cooperation ultimately has to be based on trust and a positive notion about the motive of one another,” Biden said after me met Mr Xi in Beijing.
Mr Biden said he had come to Beijing because complex relationships require sustained engagement at high levels. He said Mr Xi’s candour and constructive approach had left an impression on him.
“Candour generates trust. Trust is the basis on which real change — constructive change — is made.”
The two leaders had a second meeting involving larger delegations and a working dinner planned for later on Wednesday.
Absent from Mr Biden’s comments was any discussion of US concerns over China’s new air defence zone. Only a day earlier, Mr Biden pledged to raise those concerns “with great specificity” with Mr Xi and other Chinese leaders, adding that China’s move was deeply concerning.
“This action has raised regional tensions and increased the risk of accidents and miscalculation,” Mr Biden said in Tokyo on Tuesday after meeting Japanese President Shinzo Abe.
Japan has been on edge for the past two weeks since China unilaterally declared any aircraft flying through the zone must file flight plans with Beijing. The airspace sits atop tiny islands that are at the centre of a long-running territorial dispute between China and Japan.
The US refuses to recognise the zone, but Mr Biden has avoided calling publicly for Beijing to retract it, wary of making demands that China is likely to snub. Rather, the vice president hoped to persuade China not to enforce the zone or establish similar zones over other disputed territories.
After meeting with Mr Biden, Mr Xi said the US-China relationship had got off to a good start this year “and has generally maintained a momentum of positive development”. But he said the global situation is changing, with more pronounced challenges and regional hot spots that keep cropping up.
“The world as a whole is not tranquil,” Mr Xi said through a translator, adding that the US and China shoulder important responsibilities for upholding peace. “To strengthen dialogue and cooperation is the only right choice facing both of our countries.”
Mr Biden added: “The way I was raised was to believe that change presents opportunity.”
At the start of his visit to Beijing, Mr Biden urged Chinese students to challenge orthodoxy and the status quo, drawing an implicit contrast between the authoritarian rule of China’s government and the liberal, permissive intellectual culture he described in the United States.
“I hope you learn that innovation can only occur where you can breathe free, challenge the government, challenge religious leaders,” mr Biden told young Chinese citizens waiting at the US Embassy to get visitor visas processed.
Mr Biden said he hoped they would learn during their visit that “innovation can only occur where you can breathe free.”
When Mr Biden arrived later at the Great Hall of the People, a ceremonial edifice steps away from Tiananmen Square, any tensions between the US and China were papered over as Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao welcomed him with an elaborate honour guard. A military band played the two countries’ national anthems as Mr Biden and Mr Xi stood amid the massive hall’s marble floors and criss-crossing red carpets.
Associated Press