WASHINGTON: A long-anticipated meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, set for Monday in Indonesia, is expected to include discussions on Taiwan, human rights, Ukraine and harmful economic practices with a goal of “building a floor” under the strained relationship between the world’s two largest economies, a senior US official said Thursday.
A statement released by the White House also confirmed the upcoming meeting saying Biden will hold talks with Xi on November 14 on the sidelines of a Group of 20 nations summit in Indonesia, their first face-to-face meeting since Biden became President.
No joint statement or major outcomes are expected out of the first face-to-face sit-down since Biden took office in January 2021 and the main objective will be to open – and keep open – communication, the official added.
“One of the main objectives is really about deepening their understanding of one another’s priorities and intentions and, where possible, with the goal of reducing misunderstandings and misperceptions,” the official said.
“I don’t in any way think that the two leaders are going to sit down and be able to solve all their differences or problems. But I do think that some of these steps could be important along the way.”
The Monday face-to-face will be held ahead of the Group of 20 meeting of major economies on Indonesia’s tropical island of Bali on Tuesday and Wednesday. Both sides have been cagey about committing to the meeting, as relations have hit new lows.
Some of the caution relates to the lack of trust. Biden is wary of looking weak on China with his Congressional mandate expected to erode once all votes from Tuesday’s midterm elections are counted. “I’m not willing to make any fundamental concessions” to Beijing, he told reporters Wednesday during a post-election news conference at the White House.
And China is concerned that any moves on its part to lower the temperature could prove short-lived, met by a US response that might be insincere and embarrassing.
Fresh in its memory is the sequence less than a year ago, when the two leaders held a virtual meeting in November and pledged to “manage competition responsibly” only to have the Biden administration announce, three weeks later, a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics. While the two giants are too far apart on many issues to expect any
breakthrough out of a meeting, analysts said the mere fact that the leaders are talking is a positive after several rough months.
China has made clear its displeasure about the trip House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, third in line to the presidency, took to to Taiwan in early August. The trip by so senior a US official was not unprecedented – then-speaker Newt Gingrich visited in 1997 – but China is far more powerful now and more willing to forcefully show its anger.
And it did this in pointed fashion, staging unprecedented live-fire military exercises on all sides of Taiwan, measures military analysts said were meant to suggest China’s growing ability to stage a naval blockade in the event of an actual invasion.
For its part, Washington viewed this latest example of China’s chest-thumping as irresponsible and dangerous, and one reason to map out the two nation’s “red lines” when they meet in Indonesia.
China considers Taiwan a breakaway province to eventually be united with the mainland, by force if necessary. Few countries, including the US, recognise the self-governing island as an independent state.
Biden would come to the meeting somewhat weakened by the midterm election results, Xi ostensibly arrives with a more powerful hand, having gained an unprecedented third term at the 20th Party Congress last month and completely filling the powerful Standing Committee with allies.
Even so, there is growing discontent domestically over his administration’s unwavering enforcement of the nation’s zero-Covid policy; partly as a result, the prodigious Chinese economy is on its heels amid high unemployment, capital outflow and swooning markets. -Agencies
