Washington, D.C. — Representatives Gregory W. Meeks, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Ami Bera, Chair of the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia, and Nonproliferation, issued the following statement regarding the meeting between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Bali, Indonesia today:

“We welcome the summit meeting between Presidents Biden and Xi as there is no substitute for face-to-face diplomacy. However, as long as Beijing continues to ignore international rules and norms—whether it’s China’s aggression in the Taiwan Strait, its genocide in Xinjiang, its oppression in Hong Kong and Tibet, or its support for Russia’s and North Korea’s destabilizing actions—our engagement with the PRC will continue to be based on the principal of strategic competition.

“Candid dialogue and sustained diplomacy are necessary to ensure that this competition is healthy, constructive, and does not devolve into conflict. We applaud the Biden Administration’s continued emphasis on diplomacy and welcome the critical agreement reached during the meeting to restart bilateral climate talks. China should work with the United States to also restore and strengthen our bilateral crisis communication and management mechanisms. As the world’s two largest economies, the United States and China should pursue results-oriented cooperation on global challenges.  

“We hope these high-level engagements continue and look forward to working with the Biden Administration to ensure the United States maintains strong guardrails to stabilize the U.S.-PRC relationship, while also continuing to hold the PRC accountable for its violations of accepted norms.”

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