(Washington) American President Joe Biden mentioned on Friday as “a possibility” a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit, scheduled for mid-November in San Francisco.
“Such a meeting has not been organized, but it is a possibility,” Joe Biden said at a press conference at the White House, after US media reports that the two leaders had planned to meet to ease tensions between Beijing and Washington.
Beijing did not specify whether the Chinese president would participate in this summit.
In recent months, Beijing and Washington have renewed dialogue with a succession of visits by senior American officials to Beijing, including the head of diplomacy Antony Blinken.
But bilateral relations are still tense, with trade disputes, Chinese expansion in the South China Sea and the question of Taiwan, which Beijing considers an integral part of its territory, remaining stumbling blocks.
However, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected in Washington before the Apec summit.
The White House did not provide details on Joe Biden’s comments but according to the Washington Post, citing an American official, the possibility of a meeting between the two leaders in San Francisco is “fairly advanced”.
In August, Joe Biden indicated that he planned to meet President Xi during this summit in California.
The two leaders have not met since the G20 summit in November 2022 in Bali, Indonesia.
Also in August, the US president said that China was “a ticking time bomb in many ways”, citing its unemployment rate and aging workforce.
These difficulties arouse concern because “when bad people have problems, they do bad things,” he added.
He also assured that he was seeking to maintain “a rational relationship with China”. “I don’t wish China any harm, but I’m observing,” he said.
In June, Joe Biden offended Beijing by asserting that Xi Jinping belonged to the category of “dictators”, a comment seen as a “provocation” by Chinese diplomacy.