Biden, Xi Hold Phone Call, Talk Tech Trade Restrictions

President Joe Biden spoke April 2 with Chinese President Xi Jinping, raising concerns about Chinese “support” for Russia’s defense industrial base and the importance of U.S. technology export controls. “The President emphasized that the United States will continue to take necessary actions to prevent advanced U.S. technologies from being used to undermine our national security, without unduly limiting trade and investment,” the White House said in a readout of the two leaders’ phone call. The White House also said Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plan to visit China.

In China’s readout of the phone call, the country said Xi told Biden that the U.S. “has adopted a string of measures to suppress China’s trade and technology development, and is adding more and more Chinese entities to its sanctions lists.” If the U.S. “is willing to seek mutually beneficial cooperation and share in China’s development dividends, it will always find China’s door open,” the readout said. “[B]ut if it is adamant on containing China’s hi-tech development and depriving China of its legitimate right to development, China is not going to sit back and watch.”

The conversation was the first between the two presidents since an in-person California summit in November (see 2311160003).