JAKARTA - Chinese President Xi Jinping said Taiwan was at the heart of China's core interest, the first red line in bilateral relations that the United States should not violate, when meeting with President Joe Biden.
At a meeting held ahead of the Bali G20 summit, the first between the two leaders since Biden became president, Xi urged US leaders to translate Washington's commitments to Beijing regarding Taiwan into concrete measures.
"Taiwan's question is at the heart of China's core interest, the political foundation of China-US relations, the first red line not to be violated in China-US relations," President Xi said.
Beijing views Taiwan as an inseparable part of China. Meanwhile, the democratically-ruled island government rejects Beijing's claim to sovereignty over the island. The United States in recent years has often been accused by China of pushing for Taiwan's independence.
As previously reported, the two leaders, who met for three hours, did not want the United States' competition with China to become a conflict.
"As leaders of the two countries, we share the responsibility, in my view, to show that China and the United States can manage our differences, prevent competition from turning into conflict, finding ways to work together on urgent global issues that require our mutual cooperation," President Biden said in remarks delivered in front of reporters.
Responding to President Biden, President Xi said relations between the two countries did not meet global expectations.
"So we need to map out the right direction for China-US relations. We need to find the right direction for bilateral relations going forward and improve relations," Xi said.
"The world hopes China and the United States will handle the relationship well," he said, adding he hoped to work with Biden to get the relationship back on track.
The US-China relations have been turbulent in recent years, with tensions rising over issues ranging from Hong Kong and Taiwan to the South China Sea, US trade practices and restrictions on Chinese technology.
But US officials say there have been covert efforts by Beijing and Washington over the past two months to improve relations.
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