-
Published: 15 November 2023
President Joe Biden will meet face-to-face with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on
Wednesday, breaking a yearlong silence marked by rising tensions that have stoked fears
the two countries are on a path toward war.
The summit will take place in San Francisco in the morning at a location U.S. officials
declined to reveal out of security concerns.
Edited by| Hugh Gey
Politic section - CJ journalist
SAN FRANCISCO - November,15,2023
It will be the first time that Biden and Xi have talked — much less met — since a meeting on
the sidelines of an international summit in Bali, Indonesia, a year ago.
Since that time, relations between the U.S. and China have soured in ways that elevate the
risk of an unwanted confrontation, U.S. officials said. As an example, when the Biden
administration shot down a Chinese spy balloon that flew across the United States in
February, the Pentagon had no one in China to contact because Beijing had closed an
important military communications channel, a senior Biden administration official told
reporters Tuesday while previewing the Biden-Xi meeting.
“It is true that when the Chinese spy balloon went across the United States, we had no way
to communicate with the Chinese,” the official said. “That’s not responsible and we hope to
at least take some preliminary steps" toward improving communications.
U.S. officials believe that Biden enters the meeting from a position of strength. While the
Chinese economy is struggling with high youth unemployment and disinvestment from
foreign companies, Biden has boasted of robust economic growth in the U.S., accompanied
by a low jobless rate.
No major breakthroughs were anticipated in advance of the summit. But the two leaders are
expected to agree on steps to curb the flow of fentanyl from China to the U.S. and revive
military communication channels that China closed in response to then-House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last year.
“One of the key objectives that President Biden has is the resumption of military-to-military
contact,” the senior official said. “So, we want to see operational dialogues, we want to see
policy dialogues at the highest level and we want to see the commanders have a dialogue
about operations in the Indo-Pacific.”
Another of Biden's aims may prove tougher to realize. Biden would like to see China use its
influence with Iran to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from widening. He is likely to press Xi to
call on Iran to stay clear of the war and keep its proxies in Middle East from attacking Israel.
At lower governmental levels, U.S. officials have already made that point to the Chinese,
telling them that “any escalation would be met forcefully by the United States, and to urge
the leaders in Tehran not to not spur elements in the region that could lead to a wider
conflagration,” the senior official said.