‘Be Careful’: US President Biden warns China’s Xi Jinping on West’s investments after Putin meeting

US President Joe Biden has warned China’s President Xi Jinping and asked him to remain “careful” about the investments made by the West following his meeting with Vladimir Putin. He added that Beijing’s economy depends on the US in a lot of ways, CNN reported.

“I said: This is not a threat. This is an observation,” the US President said in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

“Since Russia went into Ukraine, 600 American corporations have pulled out of Russia. And you have told me that your economy depends on investment from Europe and the United States. And be careful. Be careful,” Biden told CNN.

This comes at a time when the relationship between China and the US has grown tense over a range of issues including Taiwan.

Putin and Xi held two days of talks in March during which they expressed their camaraderie and shared condemnation of the West. They furthermore took part in this week’s virtual summit of the Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

On being asked about what Xi Jinping’s response was to Biden’s warning, the US President said told CNN, “He listened, and he didn’t…argue. And if you notice, he has not gone full-bore in on Russia. So, I think there’s a way we can work through this.”

Meanwhile, the US Treasury Secretary is currently on a visit to Beijing. The US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen faces the tough job of stabilizing fractious US-China relations that worsened this week after China retaliated in a tech war with the United States, CNN reported.

China on Monday announced restrictions on exports of two strategic materials needed to make semiconductors, which are crucial for the normal functioning of daily life and a growing source of tension between the world’s top two economies.

In an effort to mend strained economic ties between the US and China, Yellen spoke with Premier Li Qiang while in Beijing. However, she made it clear in her public remarks that Washington and its Western allies will continue to push back against what she called China’s “unfair economic practices.”

“We seek healthy economic competition that is not winner-take-all but that, with a fair set of rules, can benefit both countries over time,” Yellen told Chinese Premier Li Qiang in a meeting on Friday.

Moreover, China’s raid on US businesses acts as an impediment to forging friendly relations. Beijing’s crackdown against Western consulting and due diligence firms has unnerved US businesses. (ANI)