Biden’s Trip to Beijing Leaves China Air-Zone Rift Open

Vice President Says U.S. Doesn’t Recognize Air-Defense Zone; Xi Shows No Sign of Backing Down.

Vice President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping ended more than five hours of face-to-face meetings in Beijing without resolving the rising international tensions over China’s declaration of a new air-defense zone, leaving questions over the next moves for each power and U.S. allies in the region.

Mr. Biden, visiting Beijing on Wednesday, pressed the point that the White House “doesn’t recognize” the zone over the East China Sea and wants China’s leadership to avoid actions that could lead to confrontations with Japan and other nations, a U.S. official said.

Mr. Xi, in turn, laid out China’s position in the dispute, but made no commitment to rolling back the zone, U.S. officials said. Rather, he indicated he would “take on board” Mr. Biden’s requests.

A U.S. official, briefing reporters in Beijing after the meetings, said: “From our perspective, it’s up to China. And we’ll see how things unfold in the coming days and weeks.”

As part of his argument in favor of reducing tensions, Mr. Biden told Mr. Xi that China should adopt a series of measures to restore trust and confidence among neighbors in the region, including by establishing a system of emergency communications, or hot lines, that would rapidly connect officials from China and Japan, and possibly other countries.

“The most urgent thing is, we want them to work with Japan and South Korea directly to do confidence-building measures,” said a senior administration official.

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