Xi Warns Mattis China Won’t Surrender ‘One Inch’ of Territory
- President issues unusually blunt warning to U.S. defense chief
- Exchange shows security disputes simmering below trade fight
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President Xi Jinping told U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis he wouldn’t give up any territory that China considered its own, an unusually blunt warning as security disputes simmer below a fight over trade.
Xi made his remarks while meeting Mattis on Wednesday in Beijing, the first such visit by a U.S. defense chief in more than four years. The comments appeared to be a reference to U.S. complaints about Chinese military deployments in the disputed South China Sea and a push by American lawmakers to expand ties with the democratically run island of Taiwan, which Beijing considers a province.