US and China's Military Relations (A High Schoolers Take)

Please note that this article is intended to provide factual coverage of events and is NOT intended to express political opinion. Any and all opinions that may be implied do not represent the official stances of the Poudre Press, Poudre School District, or Poudre High School.

As of recently in California on Wednesday November 15th 2023, United States President Joe Biden spoke to the president of China Xi Jinping. Xi came to the United States to speak to President Biden and they spoke for close to 4 hours. During this conversation President Biden spoke of concerns about China's “human rights abuse.” according to the White house's readout.

“President Biden underscored the universality of human rights and the responsibility of all nations to respect their international human rights commitments.” After the meeting President Biden would speak about how well the talks actually went and eventually described the meeting as “some of the most productive” conversations. The President spoke in a conference following the summit about resuming military communications. These two leaders agreed with each other in the fact that they want to combat the synthetic drug fentanyl.

“We’re back to direct, open, clear, communications” said Biden

Later saying that they have decided to establish a direct form of communication between them. Later when Mr. Xi spoke to some of the United States Global leaders, they communicated about wanting to pursue better relations with the United States.

“The door of China-US relations cannot be closed again now that it’s open.”

He said “We need to build more bridges and pave more roads between each other.”

However relationships are still difficult to maintain, President Joe Biden said

“He’s a dictator in a sense that he’s a guy who runs a country based on a form of Government that is totally different from ours.” Later when he made a comment that is similar to that statement, Chinese officials were said to have reacted angrily according to BBC News.

Saying that it was “extremely absurd and irresponsible.” On Thursday November 16th, 2023. China's foreign ministry stated that Joe Biden's remark openly speaking out about Mr. Xi being a Dictator was “Extremely Wrong” and “Irresponsible Political Manipulation.” This looked like a more negative end to the meeting that went overall very well and positive, according to BBC News.

The United States and China will first start their relationship by starting to slow the flow of fentanyl into the United States. Fentanyl deaths and overdoses have risen ever since 2019, with more than 106,000 drug overdose deaths involving synthetic opiates. These numbers have continued to rise in 2021 with 70,000 overdose deaths reported in 2021. Any opiate can be classified as any prescription opioid whether they are natural or synthetic. Opioid Involved deaths have increased since 2017 coming in at 21,089 whereas in 2021 they have increased to a whopping 46,000 in 2017 and have steadily increased since then.

The two leaders have also agreed to work together with issues such as AI. They also had a lengthy discussion about Taiwan. According to BBC News Mr. Xi said that it was “The biggest, most dangerous issue in US-China ties.” After these talks China said that communications with China were back to normal on the basis of “Equality and respect”.

Please note that this article is intended to provide factual coverage of events and is NOT intended to express political opinion. Any and all opinions that may be implied do not represent the official stances of the Poudre Press, Poudre School District, or Poudre High School.

Works Cited

“Drug Overdose Death Rates.” National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 25 Sept. 2023, nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates#:~:text=Overall%2C%20drug%20overdose%20deaths%20rose,overdose%20deaths%20reported%20in%202021.

Max Matza in San Francisco & Gareth Evans in Washington. “US and China Agree to Resume Military Communications after Summit.” BBC News, BBC, 16 Nov. 2023, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67411191.

My name is Andrew Sheneman, I am a Senior student at Poudre High School. I am involved with the Poudre Press here and it is my first year. I’ve always enjoyed writing, and I’m excited to contribute to the Poudre Press and take my writing a step further!