The leaders of the US and China have had their first telephone conversation. Photo / AP
Joe Biden has held his first call as US president with Xi Jinping, pressing the Chinese leader about trade and Beijing's crackdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong as well as other human rights concerns.
The two leaders spoke just hours after Biden announced plans for a Pentagon task force
to review US national security strategy in China, and after Biden announced he was levying sanctions against Myanmar's military regime following this month's coup in the southeast Asian country.
A White House statement said Biden raised concerns about Beijing's "coercive and unfair economic practices" and pressed Xi on Beijing's crackdown in Hong Kong. Human rights abuses against Uighur and ethnic minorities in the western Xinjiang province were also raised, as was China's actions toward Taiwan.
Biden, who had dealt with Xi when he served as Barack Obama's vice president, used his first three weeks in the White House to make several calls with other leaders in the Indo-Pacific region. He has tried to send the message that he would take a radically different approach to China to former President Donald Trump, who placed trade and economic issues above all else in the US-China relationship.
