FirstFT: Biden and Xi fail to ease Taiwan tensions

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping held in-depth discussions about Taiwan in a virtual meeting yesterday, but did not put up “guard rails” to ensure that tensions around the island did not escalate into dangerous conflict.

The US president opened the three-hour meeting by telling his Chinese counterpart that there was a need to ensure that competition between the powers “does not become conflicted”. But the two leaders failed to reach an agreement or find a way to ease tensions over Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.

Taiwan has become a hot spot as China increasingly flies fighter jets and bombers into its air defense identification zone.

China has hinted that Biden is weakening the “one-China” policy, under which the US has recognized Beijing as the sole seat of government since the countries normalized relations in 1979. Biden made policy changes that have made it easier for US officials to connect with Taiwanese counterparts.

Xi warned Biden that Taiwan’s independence advocates and those who support it would “play with fire” and “burn themselves to death,” according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

Biden wanted to hold a personal summit, but Xi hasn’t left China for nearly two years because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Thank you for reading FirstFT Americas. Here’s the rest of today’s news – Gordon

Five more stories on the news

1. Biden signs $ 1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Joe Biden enacted the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Bill yesterday, which marked a legislative victory for the US president when his approval ratings hit all-time lows.

2. Bill Gross says that investors live in “dream land” Investors live in a “dream land” created by the decision of global central banks to continue to stimulate the global economy, even if it has recovered strongly from the pandemic, the founder of the bond investment group Pimco told the Financial Times in an interview.

3. Macklowe’s art collection sells for $ 676 million Thirty-five works of art by Linda and Harry Macklowe were sold for $ 676 million last night at Sotheby’s in New York. The collection was built up over five decades and included works by Alberto Giacometti, Mark Rothko, and Cy Twombly.

4. Dutch government crawls to stop the movement of shell The Hague has launched an 11-hour attempt to keep Royal Dutch Shell in the Netherlands by trying to get rid of a dividend tax. The energy company cited the tax as a reason to unify its share structure and relocate its headquarters to the UK.

5. Russia warned of hostilities against Ukraine Foreign ministers of Germany and France pledged “unwavering support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity” in a joint statement after ministers met to discuss the threat of Russian troops deploying on the border.

• Similar news: The German energy regulator said it had “temporarily suspended” certification of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which set back the Russian-backed gas project and sparked a surge in European gas prices.

Coronavirus digestion

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The day ahead

Merits Walmart and Home Depot are starting a big week of earnings for the retail sector. The Commerce Department is also expected to report a 1.2 percent increase in retail sales across the country in October, after rising 0.7 percent the previous month.

EU defense ministers meet in Brussels One day after a meeting of EU foreign ministers, it is the turn of the defense ministers to meet in the Belgian capital. They are joined by Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO, amid the double crises the bloc is facing: a gathering of migrants in Belarus and Russian troops gathering on Ukraine’s eastern border.

Rittenhouse judgment Jurors begin their deliberations today on the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, who is charged with willful homicide during the August 2020 street riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Defense lawyers say the then 17-year-old acted in self-defense. (AP)

US trade officials continue tour of Asia After meeting officials in Tokyo yesterday, Trade Representative Katherine Tai will travel to South Korea and India, while Trade Minister Gina Raimondo will travel to Singapore and Malaysia. (Politics)

What else we read and look at

UN climate process should fail After Glasgow, it is time to realize that the UN climate process is not working. That’s not because the science discussed at COP meetings is flawed, writes Gideon Rachman. The problem is political. Do you agree with Gideon? Vote in our poll.

Private equity bosses marvel at their own success When the music at the party played by invitation only at a Berlin nightclub on the sidelines of the SuperReturn conference, the vacillating private equity and venture capital executives seemed in disbelief at how much money they made during the pandemic. “I didn’t expect things to go back so dramatically,” said David Blitzer, the Blackstone billionaire.

Don’t believe in the deglobalization narrative When Covid-19 broke out, many wrote an obituary for China-centered globalization. However, there is little evidence that the pandemic has caused companies to leave the country en masse. Why didn’t deglobalization catch on, asks Megan Greene, Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School.

Cryptocurrencies: How regulators lost control How did regulators lose control of the $ 2 trillion crypto market and can now get a grip on it? Industry voices – including Binance boss “CZ” and Sam Bankman-Fried from FTX – respond to the question in this FT film.

Investors are turning to India India has long been a promising second-choice Asian market for investors and has become one of the main beneficiaries of China’s crackdown on tech companies, fueling an upward trend in the country’s private and public markets. But is the start-up industry already overheating?

Books

A guide to Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil, Beijing’s pursuit of international supremacy, and Alexei Nawalny’s extraordinary courage are some of the topics covered in Gideon Rachman’s list of the best political books of the year. And don’t forget that at the end of this story you can suggest your favorite reading of the year.