The president of the United States, Joe Biden, had a virtual meeting with President Xi Jinping on Friday as concern grew over the relationship between the Chinese leader and his homolog Vladimir Putin and the military support that China might consider providing to Russia.
Talks about the relationship between the two nations had started last November, but the matter became urgent with the Russian invasion of Ukraine that took place on 24 February.
Of course, the event has captured the headlines of last week all over the world. Let’s take a look at some of the news reports and how they tackled the story.
To begin with, some newspaper headlines merely stated that the two leaders set up a virtual meeting without any additional information; The Spanish daily La Voz De Almeria or the South China Morning Post are a case in point:
On the other hand, one of the points that were raised by some media was the need for cooperation between the two nations in order to ease tensions as it is of no interest to both countries.
The US press put forward a different perspective. Although many headlines in US newspapers focused on the “cooperation” of Washington and Beijing, others raised the issue of the “costs” and “consequences” that China would face should it support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Other newspapers from around the world, such as the British daily newspaper The Guardian, joined in to highlight the warnings that President Xi Jinping received from Biden.
While some headlines mentioned Biden’s warnings, others described them as “threats”:
TASS, a Russian news agency owned by the state shed light on President Xi Jinping’s response to Washington’s “unjustified accusations”.
TASS also claims that Xi Jinping was clear in explaining “the country’s position” in terms of “the Ukrainian issue”, a point which Le Télégramme, a French daily newspaper, does not agree with.
Global Times, an English-language Chinese newspaper, throws light on President Xi’s opposition to “indiscriminate sanctions” against Russia. According to him, discussions should be organized between Russia and NATO.
While the event was reported somewhat differently among various newspapers, most of them relied on statements made by the two leaders. However, Bangkok Post chose to focus on the “clash” between China and the United States.
The Economist, a British weekly newspaper, is more forceful when it comes to the Russian issue and uses heavy words to describe China’s position concerning Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, being a determining factor of how “China sees the world”.
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