Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden have held their first virtual meeting amid rising tensions over trade, Taiwan, and security.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute director of defence strategy Michael Shoebridge told Jim Wilson the two leaders set and met “low expectations” by “talking past each other” rather than to each other.

“They’ve both agreed that neither of them wants conflict, that is the big takeout, and they’ve both agreed that there needs to be more communication between the US administration and Xi’s government.

“But to me, that’s the extent of the good news.”

The safety of Taiwan as a self-governing state continues to dominate discussions of global politics, and Mr Shoebridge said Biden would “very likely” deploy the US military were it threatened with attack.

“The costs and consequences for China would be greater than [Xi] expects.

“There would be risks to Australia, but the risks of not acting are higher, because we wouldn’t want the US to lose and … China to be an empowered, even more aggressive military power.”

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