Biden and Jinping spoke by phone for the first time since July 2022.

(Patria) - Chinese and American Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden had a phone conversation yesterday, which the White House described as the intention of the two leaders to "control tensions" between the two superpowers.

The White House announced in a statement that Biden called for "peace and stability" around Taiwan in his conversation with Xi, which is preparing to install a new president.

The American president also called for respect for "freedom of navigation in the South China Sea".

This was the first phone conversation between the two presidents since July 2022.

Chinese media reported that Xi told the American president that the issue of Taiwan represents a "red line that must not be crossed".

Biden also, according to a White House statement, expressed concern about China's "unfair trade practices and non-market economic practices".

He emphasized that "the US will continue to take necessary actions to prevent advanced US technologies from being used to undermine our national security, without unnecessarily restricting trade and investment".

Chinese media reported that Xi said Beijing would not stand "idly by" if Washington continues to stifle "China's high-tech development".

According to them, Xi said that "the United States has launched a relentless series of measures to suppress China's economy, trade, science and technology, and the list of sanctions against Chinese companies is growing".

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to China in a few days, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Beijing in a few weeks to continue the dialogue between the two sides, a White House source confirmed.

According to this source, the phone conversation between the two leaders was an opportunity to assess progress since their meeting in November, at the summit in Woodside, California, when Xi and Biden agreed to cooperate in several areas - from combating narcotics to artificial intelligence and establishing dialogue between their armed forces.

- Intense competition requires intense diplomacy to control tensions, discuss misunderstandings and misinterpretations, and avoid unintended conflict - said an American official.

The US, he added, is "quite concerned" about the economic support China is providing to Russia.