President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke for three-and-a-half hours in a virtual summit on Monday. Topics discussed included Taiwan, human rights and trade policies. During the summit, Xi warned Biden that supporting Taiwanese independence would be “playing with fire.” Xi also criticized the U.S. for building new alliances in the Pacific region to counter China’s rise. Xi said dividing the world into blocs would “inevitably bring disaster to the world.” Biden called on the two nations to develop “guardrails” to help avoid possible disagreements from spiraling into conflict.

President Joe Biden: “It seems to me our responsibility as leaders of China and the United States is to ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer into conflict, whether intended or unintended — just simple, straightforward competition.”