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- Chinese leader Xi Jinping told President Joe Biden China intended to rule Taiwan, NBC News reported.
- The conversation took place on the fringes of the Apec summit in November.
- Tensions are increasing between China and Taiwan ahead of the election.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping told President Joe Biden that China intended to take control of Taiwan in a face-to-face meeting last month, NBC News reported.
The report, citing three former and current US officials, said that the remarks were made during a meeting on the fringes of the Apec summit in San Francisco in November.
While official readouts of the meeting emphasized the common ground the leaders found on issues such as the climate crisis, the report indicated that long-standing tensions over the de facto autonomy of Taiwan also surfaced.
Xi bluntly asserted the Chinese right to rule Taiwan and said it would prefer to take it peacefully not by force, according to NBC.
The Chinese leader reportedly denied US intelligence claims that China intended to be ready to seize Taiwan by 2027, saying the timing had not been decided.
The report echoes details of the meeting reported by Japanese outlet Nikkei, which characterized Xi's remarks on Taiwan as an attempt to dial down tensions, emphasizing that China wasn't planning military action, but laying out the conditions under which it would attack.
The Chinese president is under pressure amid economic turmoil in China, and at the meeting sought to smooth ties with the US and American business leaders in a bid to secure investment.
China has long asserted its right to rule Taiwan, which claimed its independence from China's communist government after the civil war in the 1940s.
In recent speeches, Xi has menaced Taiwan with the prospect of invasion, and US officials are increasingly concerned that Xi is planning on seizing control of Taiwan by force.
Biden has said that the US would come to the defense of Taiwan if it's attacked, though the remarks were modified by the White House.
The US has long maintained a position of "strategic ambiguity" on Taiwan, acknowledging Chinese claims to rule the territory yet hinting that it could defend Taiwan's right to self-governance if it's attacked.
Tensions have been increasing between Taiwan and the mainland in the run-up to Taiwan's elections next month.