Joe Biden will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Wednesday, November 15, the White House announced on Friday, repeating that he wanted to “responsibly manage the rivalry” between Washington and Beijing.
“The leaders will discuss issues related to the bilateral relationship between China and the United States, the continued importance of maintaining open lines of communication, and a range of regional and global issues,” the door said in a statement. -White House spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre.
Senior US officials confirmed that the meeting would take place “in the San Francisco area”, California, and also said that Washington wanted a “rivalry” with Beijing, but not a “conflict” or a “cold war”. .
“Our goal will be to try to take steps that stabilize the relationship between the United States and China, remove some misunderstandings, and open new lines of communication,” a senior official said in an interview. Thursday with the press.
His comments were under embargo until Friday, and the U.S. officials cited requested anonymity.
Beijing confirmed the meeting: “At the invitation of US President Biden, President Xi Jinping will travel to San Francisco, United States, from November 14 to 17, for a meeting between the heads of state of China and of the United States,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced in a statement.
“Rather hectic” year 2024
This will be the second in-person meeting between the two men since the election of Joe Biden, and their seventh conversation since that date.
It will also be Xi Jinping’s first visit to the United States since 2017. At the same time, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit will take place in San Francisco, organized from November 12 to 18.
The American president wants to warn his counterpart that the Americans are “extremely concerned” about the idea of interference by Beijing in the presidential election in Taiwan in 2024, a senior American official said.
She estimated that the coming year, with this election but also a presidential election next November in the United States, could be “rather turbulent” for the relationship between Washington and Beijing.
“We are also concerned by the unprecedented, dangerous and provocative intensification of (Chinese) military activities around Taiwan,” she added, indicating that Joe Biden would also raise the subject.
However, he will repeat to China – which claims sovereignty of the island – that Washington does not support independence for Taiwan, and that American policy on the matter has therefore not changed.
Taiwan is one of the main areas of friction between the two superpowers, and China had also suspended most regular military communications with the United States in the summer of 2022, after a visit by the President of the House American representatives on the island.
“Realistic” expectations
Having a dialogue with China between senior military officials but also at a more operational level is “absolutely essential” to avoid potentially dangerous misunderstandings, the senior official said.
“The Chinese are reluctant and the president (Biden) will therefore resolutely put pressure next week” to reestablish these crucial lines of communication between the two nuclear powers, said the senior American official already cited above.
His colleague warned that we should not expect a “long list of concrete results”, assuring that the aim of the meeting was to “manage the rivalry” with Beijing, and that the United States had expectations “ realistic”.
Senior officials indicated that the major international issues of the moment would be discussed, in particular the war between Israel and Hamas.
Joe Biden expects China to “say very clearly, as part of its emerging relationship with Iran, that it is essential that (Tehran) does not seek to intensify or expand” this conflict.
The United States is “confident” before the meeting, said the senior official, praising America’s good economic health, as well as Washington’s intense diplomatic activity to strengthen its alliances in Asia.
The meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden will take place in several “sessions”, as during their meeting a year ago in Bali (Indonesia), on the sidelines of the G20, according to these sources.
The meeting between the two men then lasted approximately three hours.