to double its numbers in the last decade. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. president biden has spent more than two hours on the phone with his chinese counterpart, xijinping. the two leaders both issued warnings about taiwan, which has once again emerged as a key point of tension, following reports of a possible visit there by the us house speaker nancy pelosi. although the visit hasn t been confirmed, mr biden told xi jinping, that washington strongly opposed any unilateral moves that would change the island s status, or undermine stability across the taiwan straits. president xi said: those who play with fire will only get burned. joe biden responded to that with on taiwan, the us policy has not changed. let s speak now to craig singleton, a national security expert, and former us diplomat, who s a senior china fellow at the foundation for the defense of democracies. thank you forjoining here on bbc world news. it was something of a marat
absolutely. china s clear hostility regarding speaker pelosi s planned trip is by and large very consistent with what we have seen from beijing in terms of its rhetoric and broader efforts to isolate the self governing island nation. the trip also happens to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the founding of china s people s liberation army which is of course a sensitive moment and as you mentioned there is deep scepticism about american guarantees that the trip and others like it don t signal a change in us policy and that is made all the more difficult because president biden himself has consistently mischaracterised american security commitments under the taiwan relations act here in the united states but at the end of the day there is no indication at this point that china is preparing for any sort of imminent invasion in taiwan and nor is there any information to suggest that they are thinking about a serious military escalation in response to nancy pelosi s make possible plans
president xi said: those who play with fire will only get burned. joe biden responded to that with on taiwan, the us policy has not changed. let s speak now to craig singleton, a national security expert, and former us diplomat, who s a senior china fellow at the foundation for the defense of democracies. thank you forjoining here on bbc world news. it was something of a marathon conversation by all accounts, two hours and 17 minutes. do we take it from this that the biden administration didn t exact leak condone the prospect of nancy pelosi s make visit to taiwan? . ~ of nancy pelosi s make visit to taiwan? ., ~ , ., of nancy pelosi s make visit to taiwan? ., ~ i. ., ., taiwan? thank you for having me. taiwan? thank you for having me- would taiwan? thank you for having me. would say taiwan? thank you for having me. would say overall- taiwan? thank you for having me. would say overall the . taiwan? thank you for having | me. would say overall the call went about as well as the
but what action could raising actually take if nancy pelosi decides to press ahead with this trip to taiwan?- this trip to taiwan? sure. speaker this trip to taiwan? sure. speaker pelosi s - this trip to taiwan? sure. speaker pelosi s trip - this trip to taiwan? sure. speaker pelosi s trip is i speaker pelosi s trip is obviously not happening in a vacuum and the white house has made clear that it has major reservations about her trip and the plans, simply because they could disrupt other parts of the very complex water faceted relationship that exists between the us and china. there is precedent for nancy pelosi s make trip back in the 1990s, former speaker of the house newt gingrich travelled to taiwan but that was during a very different period in us china relations when things were relatively positive and thatis were relatively positive and that is obviouslyjust not the case today. should nancy pelosi travelled to taiwan? i think what we are going to see quite immediately will be
diplomatic breakthrough. perhaps the biggest takeaway is that president biden and xi jinping are possibly planning to meet face to face as early as this fall during the 620 leaders summit. i think that the call in general, it is really part of a white house led effort to ensure that the intensified competition between the united states and china doesn t veer into the military domain and so they see these leader to lead exchanges as vital to that effort and that includes being able to have a very frank discussion about taiwan. it very frank discussion about taiwan. , . . , taiwan. it is a hard sell, though. taiwan. it is a hard sell, though, isn t taiwan. it is a hard sell, though, isn t it, - taiwan. it is a hard sell, though, isn t it, for - taiwan. it is a hard sell, though, isn t it, for an l though, isn t it, for an american president to seek to persuade his chinese counterpart that there is no change in us taiwan policy given that a senior member of his very own party is plann