WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 President Joe Biden will meet Monday with President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of next week鈥檚 Group of 20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, a face-to-face meeting that comes amid increasingly strained U.S.-China relations, the White House announced Thursday.
It will be the first in-person meeting between the leaders of the world鈥檚 two biggest economies since Biden became president in January 2021 and comes weeks after Xi was awarded a as the Chinese Communist Party leader during the party鈥檚 national congress.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement the leaders will meet to 鈥渄iscuss efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication between鈥 the two countries and to "responsibly manage competition and work together where our interests align, especially on transnational challenges that affect the international community.鈥
The White House has been working with Chinese officials over the last several weeks to arrange the meeting. Biden on Wednesday told reporters that he intended to discuss with Xi growing tensions between Washington and Beijing over the self-ruled island of Taiwan, trade policies, Beijing鈥檚 relationship with Russia and more.
鈥淲hat I want to do with him when we talk is lay out what each of our red lines are and understand what he believes to be in the critical national interests of China, what I know to be the critical interests of the United States,鈥 Biden said. 鈥淎nd determine whether or not they conflict with one another.鈥
A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the summit, sought to downplay expectations for the meeting , telling reporters on Thursday that there was no joint communique or deliverables anticipated from the sit-down. Rather, the official said, Biden aimed to build a 鈥渇loor for the relationship.鈥
Biden and Xi traveled together in the U.S. and China in 2011 and 2012 when both leaders were serving as their respective countries' vice presidents, and they have held five phone or video calls since Biden became president in January 2021. But the U.S.-China relationship has become far more complicated since those getting-to-know-you talks in Washington and on the Tibetan plateau a decade ago.
As president, Biden has repeatedly taken China to task for human rights abuses against the Uyghur people and other ethnic minorities, Beijing鈥檚 crackdowns on democracy activists in , coercive trade practices, military provocations against self-ruled and differences over Russia鈥檚 prosecution of its war against Ukraine.
Weeks before Vladimir Putin launched his the Russian president met with Xi in Beijing and the two issued a memorandum expressing hopes of a 鈥渘o limits鈥 relationship for their nations.
China has largely refrained from criticizing Russia鈥檚 war but thus far has held off on supplying Moscow with arms.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 a lot of respect that China has for Russia or Putin,鈥 Biden said Wednesday. 鈥淎nd in fact, they鈥檝e been sort of keeping the distance a little bit.鈥
The leaders were also expected to address U.S. frustrations that Beijing has not used its influence to press North Korea to pull back from conducting provocative missile tests and to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Biden was set to discuss threats from North Korea with the leaders of South Korea and Japan a day before sitting down with Xi.
Xi鈥檚 government has criticized the Biden administration鈥檚 posture toward Taiwan 鈥 which Beijing looks eventually to unify with the communist mainland 鈥 as undermining China鈥檚 sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Chinese president also has suggested that Washington wants to stifle Beijing鈥檚 growing clout as it tries to overtake the U.S. as the world鈥檚 largest economy.
Tensions over Taiwan have grown since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Biden said that he鈥檚 鈥渘ot willing to make any fundamental concessions鈥 about the United States鈥 Taiwan doctrine.
Under its 鈥淥ne China鈥 policy, the United States recognizes the government in Beijing while allowing for informal relations and defense ties with Taipei. It takes a stance of 鈥渟trategic ambiguity鈥 toward the defense of Taiwan 鈥 leaving open the question of whether it would respond militarily were the island attacked.
Asked about the anticipated meeting, China鈥檚 foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a Thursday news briefing that China was looking for 鈥渨in-win cooperation with the U.S.鈥 while reiterating Beijing鈥檚 concerns about the U.S. stance on Taiwan.
鈥淭he U.S. needs to stop obscuring, hollowing out and distorting the One China principle, abide by the basic norms in international relations, including respecting other countries鈥 sovereignty, territorial integrity and noninterference in other countries鈥 internal affairs,鈥 he said.
Biden caused a stir in Asia in May when at a news conference in Tokyo, said 鈥測es鈥 when asked if he was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if China invaded. The White House and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were quick to clarify that there was no change in U.S. policy.
Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make the island鈥檚 decades-old de facto independence permanent, a step U.S. leaders say they don鈥檛 support. Pelosi is the highest-ranking elected American official to visit since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997.
Xi has stayed close to home throughout the global COVID-19 pandemic, where he has enforced a 鈥渮ero-COVID鈥 policy that has resulted in mass lockdowns that have roiled the global supply chains.
He made his since start of the pandemic in September with a stop in Kazakhstan and then onto Uzbekistan to take part in the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization with Putin and other leaders of the Central Asian security group.
U.S. officials were eager to see how Xi approaches the meeting after being newly empowered with a third term and consolidating his position as the unquestioned leader of the state, saying they would wait to assess whether that made him more or less likely to seek out areas of cooperation with the U.S.
They emphasized that party congress results reinforced the importance of direct engagement with Xi, rather than lower level officials whom they鈥檝e found unable or unwilling to speak for the Chinese leader.
