WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden opened his virtual meeting with China’s Xi Jinping by saying their goal is to ensure competition “does not veer into conflict.”
Xi said he hopes to "move China-U.S. relations forward in a positive direction.”
The two leaders met Monday by video amid mounting tensions in the U.S.-China relationship. Biden had hoped to meet Xi in person. However, the Chinese president has not left the country since the beginning of the pandemic.
Biden has criticized Beijing over human rights abuses against Uyghurs in northwest China, squelching democratic protests in Hong Kong, military aggression against the self-ruled island of Taiwan and more.
Xi’s deputies, meanwhile, have lashed out against the Biden White House for interfering in what it sees as internal Chinese matters.