Chinese President Xi Jinping asks US to 'stop arming Taiwan'

Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned US President Joe Biden to stop arming Taiwan adding that China’s reunification with the island nation was “unstoppable.” “The US side should… stop arming Taiwan, and support China’s peaceful reunification,” Xi told Biden during a summit in San Francisco, according to a readout from China’s foreign ministry. “China will realise reunification, and this is unstoppable,” the Chinese leader said of the future of the self-ruled island, which Beijing has pledged to re-take one day. Meanwhile, the two countries have agreed to restore military-to-military communication “on the basis of equality and respect.” Military talks between the US and China have been on ice since August last year when Beijing called them off in response to then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. Biden and Xi also agreed Wednesday in California that the two sides would “conduct telephone conversations between theater commanders” as well as hold defence policy coordination and maritime talks, according to Beijing’s foreign ministry. Xi also told Biden that China did not seek to “surpass or unseat the United States” and stressed that “the United States should not scheme to suppress and contain China”. “China will not follow the old path of colonisation and plunder, nor will it follow the wrong path of hegemony when a country becomes strong,” Xi said, according to Xinhua. China’s development, he said, “will not be stopped by external forces”. With inputs AFP