Biden, Xi Talk Chip Export Controls in Final Meeting
Chinese President Xi Xinping raised concerns about U.S. export controls during what was expected to be his last meeting with President Joe Biden before Donald Trump takes office (see 2411140018), warning the U.S. against pursuing policies that could lead to the decoupling of the two economies.
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Xi told Biden that “‘small courtyards with high walls’ are not what major powers do,” referencing the Biden administration’s small-yard, high fence approach -- the notion of placing strict controls around a small set of advanced technologies.
“‘Decoupling and breaking the chain’ is not a solution,” Xi told Biden, according to an unofficial translation of a readout of the meeting from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Only openness and sharing can benefit mankind.”
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking to reporters after the two leaders’ Nov. 16 meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Peru, said Xi and China have “not been shy” about objecting to U.S. export controls in talks over the past few years -- “particularly when it comes to advanced semiconductors and advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment” -- and that continued last week.
The U.S. has also “not been shy about saying that for very high semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment with national security applications, we are going to restrict that so that it is not used against us or our allies,” Sullivan told reporters in Lima. “And we’ve made no bones about that, and President Biden made no bones about it again today.”
Sullivan also said Biden has stressed to Beijing that U.S. export controls aren’t meant to result in a “broad-based decoupling of our economic or technology trade with China,” The restrictions target “high-end, high-level capabilities,” Sullivan said, “a very small fraction of the overall trade that we have with China, and it is squarely focused on the national security concerns we have about these particular forms of both semiconductors and manufacturing equipment.”
Sullivan said that approach is “a policy we believe that has protected America’s national security and enhanced our innovation edge, and we will continue to support that until the end of this term.”
He added that Biden officials “will continue to advocate to the next team that they carry forward with this policy” against China, referencing the incoming Trump administration.