Nov. 14 (UPI) — President Joe Biden will hold a high-stakes meeting Wednesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as the two leaders attend this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.
The meeting, which is billed as the U.S.-PRC Leaders Summit and is not an official part of APEC, will be their first in a year amid growing tensions and mistrust between China and the United States over Taiwan, trade, the South China Sea and drug trafficking.
According to the White House, Biden will focus on three things during his sideline summit with Xi.
“One, not only improve and increase American investment in the region, but the region’s investment in the United States,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday, aboard Air Force One, which was en route to San Francisco.
“Number two, lifting up and looking towards a vision for better international worker standards, cleaner environments, safe environments, collective bargaining, a chance for international workers to be able to compete on a level playing field,” Jean-Pierre added.
“And number three, building a more inclusive economy across the region.”
According to Biden’s advisers, the leaders could also announce the resumption of military-to-military communications, which China suspended in the wake of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in the summer of 2022.
Biden is expected to hold an afternoon press briefing after the bilateral meeting, which will follow a morning greeting with Xi.
The two leaders last met exactly one year ago at the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. Wednesday’s meeting also will mark Xi’s first visit to the United States since 2017.
“Building on their last meeting in November 2022 in Bali, Indonesia, the leaders will also discuss how the United States and the PRC can continue to responsibly manage competition and work together where our interests align, particularly on transnational challenges that affect the international community,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement last week.
While the meeting between Xi and Biden is not part of the summit, their meeting is seen as vital for both leaders amid a backdrop of world conflicts including the Israel-Hamas war.
“Both sides need to avoid blowing each other up,” former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Rick Waters, the inaugural coordinator of the State Department’s China House, said about the risk of conflict between the two countries. “That’s the type of signal you need from a meeting like this.”
“Xi needs the summit more than Biden does. He needs to show he’s respected, that he has stature,” said Minxin Pei, a political scientist focusing on China-U.S. ties at Claremont McKenna College. “He’s definitely in a worse position than in November of last year.”
Last month, Biden met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in what many believe was a precursor to Wednesday’s summit with Xi.
According to the White House, Biden emphasized the “need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication.”
“He underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges,” the administration said last month.
During a recent visit to Washington, D.C., Wang also held a two-day meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan to hash out international issues and state their positions.
On Tuesday, Blinken opened APEC — a group of 21 countries that surround the Pacific Ocean — and its summit in San Francisco where he welcomed leaders to the United States.
“Our engagement with APEC underscores the United States’ enduring commitment to the vision that we all agreed in Malaysia in 2020: an open, dynamic, resilient, and peaceful Asia-Pacific community, one that enhances the prosperity of its people and future generations.”