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Xi to meet Biden at G20, China confirms
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Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the Group of 20 summit in Bali next week and meet his United States counterpart Joe Biden, Beijing's foreign ministry confirmed on Friday, in the two leaders’ first in-person talks since Xi sealed a historic third term as leader last month.
The two met prior to Biden taking office in January 2021 and have spoken by phone a number of times since then, but the COVID-19 pandemic and Xi's subsequent aversion to foreign travel have prevented them from meeting in person.
Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular press briefing that Xi would meet Biden and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron next week in Bali, between Nov. 14 and 17, as well as Senegal's Macky Sall and Argentina's Alberto Fernandez.
He will then travel to Thailand from Nov. 17 to 19 to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Zhao confirmed.
The White House has already said Biden will meet Xi on Monday, when the "leaders will discuss efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication", as well as how to "responsibly manage competition and work together where our interests align".
"The president believes it is critical to build a floor for the relationship and ensure that there are rules of the road that bound our competition," a Biden administration senior official said, as quoted by Reuters.
The US and China have a massive investment and trade relationship but are also challenging each other's military and diplomatic influence, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.
They also face a potential flashpoint over the self-ruled island of Taiwan, a close ally of the US that Xi has made clear he believes should be under Beijing's control.
Russia's war in Ukraine and the issue of North Korea will likely be discussed.
On Wednesday, Biden said he had already made clear to Xi that he was "looking for competition, not conflict", adding they would discuss Taiwan, but that the US stance on the island "has not changed at all".
Biden said he was unwilling to make any fundamental concessions when he meets Xi, and that he wanted both leaders to lay out their "red lines" and resolve areas of conflict, including on Taiwan.
After almost three years of self-imposed pandemic isolation, where international diplomacy was largely conducted via video link, China now aims to shore up its global alliances—especially with developing countries—in the face of increased competition with the US and a world destabilized by the Ukraine war.
Biden and Xi last met in person during the Obama administration, and US ties with China have since sunk to their lowest level in decades, most notably since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's August trip to Taiwan.
A flurry of state visits to China this month has highlighted the importance of maintaining trade and other diplomatic ties—even as China acts more assertively to defend its interests.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz defied fierce domestic criticism to visit Beijing last Friday with a business delegation in tow, vowing to deepen trade cooperation with China alongside raising contentious issues such as the Ukraine war.
His visit capped off a string of trips by the leaders of Pakistan, Tanzania and the Vietnamese Communist Party—the most numerous face-to-face meetings Xi has conducted since hosting more than a dozen world leaders at February's Beijing Olympics.
France's foreign minister last week said Macron was likely to visit China in the coming months.
