On November 16, during his final meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, Chinese leader Xi Jinping voiced his willingness to work with the new administration, maintain cooperation and manage differences.
Biden called the U.S.-China relationship the most important in the world and repeated his oft-stated remark that the United States and China “cannot let any of this competition veer into conflict.”
Pledges aside, when VOA took a closer look at what Biden and Xi had to say during their meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima, Peru, it found that there was a sharp contrast between what Xi says and China’s actions and facts on the ground.
Cyberthreats
During his meeting with Xi, Biden raised “deep concerns” about Chinese state-sponsored cyberattacks “targeting civilian critical infrastructure and threatening the safety and security of Americans.”
In response, Xi said there is no evidence supporting what he called “the irrational claim” that cyberattacks are being carried out “from China.”
However, for years U.S. intelligence agencies and cybersecurity experts have routinely traced cyberattacks to Beijing. Many of the threat actors are not just affiliated with the Chinese state but controlled by it. China has also been compromising telecommunications firms and providers of managed information technology services.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s 2024 Annual Threat Assessment report named China as “the most active and persistent cyber threat to U.S. Government, private-sector, and critical infrastructure networks.”
That report referenced “PRC operations” that were likely intended to “pre-position cyber-attacks against Guam,” an island in the Western Pacific and closest U.S. territory to Taiwan.
The 2024 Microsoft Digital Defense Report said that “Beijing’s long-term focus on controlling Taiwan” had spurred Chinese threat actors to carry out a high level of targeting against Taiwan-based enterprises.
China has targeted military and IT entities in the South China Sea region.
In July 2021, the U.S. and allies accused Beijing of facilitating the cyberattack on the Microsoft Exchange email server software and other ransomware attacks.
Last week, the FBI and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency revealed that Chinese state-affiliated actors were carrying out “a broad and significant cyber espionage campaign” targeting commercial telecommunications infrastructure in the U.S.
Beijing has also become more aggressive in carrying out influence operations intended to sway U.S. elections.
Ukraine
More than 1,000 days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden called out Beijing’s “continued support for Russia’s defense industrial base.”
Xi said China “makes every effort for peace” and claimed Beijing’s “position and actions on the Ukraine issue have always been fair and square.”
However, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization views China as a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
China, through its “no limits friendship” with Russia, has provided Moscow diplomatic cover for its war and is significantly supporting Russia’s ability to produce armaments.
The U.S. says China has ramped up sales of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology used to produce weapons and weapons systems that Moscow is deploying in Ukraine.
Declassified U.S. intelligence estimates that roughly 90% of Russia’s microelectronics used to make missiles, tanks and aircraft came from China in 2023.
The report said China had provided Russia 70% of the machine tools likely used to manufacture ballistic missiles.
China also ramped up trade with Russia, particularly oil and gas imports, to buoy Russia’s flagging economy and dampen the impact of Western sanctions.
Taiwan
Biden told Xi the U.S. “opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side” and called for any differences to be resolved peacefully, reflecting nearly half a century of U.S. policy. He further called on China to end its destabilizing military activity around Taiwan. Beijing has signaled its willingness to retake Taiwan by force.
Drawing a red line around Taiwan, a democratically self-governing island which China claims as its territory, Xi called on the U.S. to unequivocally oppose “Taiwan independence and support China’s peaceful reunification.”
Beijing has often conflated its one China principle, which states there is only one China and Taiwan is a part of China, with the United States’ one China policy.
While the U.S. acknowledges China’s claim that Taiwan is part of China and recognizes Beijing as “the sole legal government of China,” the one-China policy does not take a position on Taiwan’s status.
With China becoming increasingly belligerent toward Taiwan with ramped up air incursions, threatening propaganda and exercises simulating attacks on Taiwan, the U.S. has approved billions in arms sales to Taiwan.
China says that undermines its sovereignty and threatens peace in the region, calling on the U.S. to clearly see “the true nature” of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, who Beijing regards as a separatist.
Lai has said it is up to the people of Taiwan to decide their future. He has repeatedly offered to hold talks that Beijing has rejected.
Human rights
China’s inclusion of “democracy and human rights” among its “red lines” is part of Beijing’s long-standing effort to redefine the popular understanding of those concepts and to stifle criticism of Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, rules and abuses.
Beijing has both argued that human rights “vary from one country to another,” while also contending that China abides by “the basic principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” or UDHR.
However, the CCP systematically violates rights and freedoms set out by the UDHR, specifically “freedom of thought, conscience and religion” and the rights to “free speech, free assembly and privacy.”
The UDHR also states that that no one “shall be held in slavery or servitude.”
A body of evidence shows that China has subjected Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its Northwestern Xinjiang region to mass surveillance, internment, forced sterilization, torture, sexual violence, forced labor, religious repression and other forms of cultural erasure.
Beijing has similarly engaged in systematic repression and cultural erasure in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
