U.S. President Joe Biden will hold a virtual meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday as the two countries try to strike a working relationship amid growing tensions in recent months.
This will be the first meeting between the two leaders after their telephonic conversation on September 9.
"The two leaders will discuss ways to responsibly manage the competition as well as ways to work together where our interests align," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. "President Biden will make clear U.S. intentions and priorities and be clear and candid about our concerns."
China is keen to avoid confrontation as the country is getting increasingly alienated and wants to make a success of the Winter Olympic Games that it will be hosting next year. Xi Jinping is also headed for a crucial Communist Party Congress in which he expects to secure an unprecedented third term as President and would like to project that he can hold his own at the world stage.
The summit presents a big opportunity to scale down tensions between the world’s two largest economies, but no major breakthroughs are expected on crucial issues such as tensions over Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
According to US media reports, the meeting is likely to produce initiatives on a range of issues, including easing of visa restrictions, the creation of a bilateral nuclear weapons dialogue and a possible framework to ease trade frictions to demonstrate bilateral resolve to move the relationship from confrontation to cooperation.
The summit will be virtual because Xi is declining invitations to attend all events outside China. National security adviser Jake Sullivan has termed it as “the next best thing” to Biden’s preference of an in-person get-together.
Both sides want the summit to defuse tensions that China’s Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng warned in July had produced a bilateral “stalemate.”
A senior U.S. official said Biden would make clear he welcomes stiff competition with China, but doesn't want conflict, and played down the likelihood of a long list of outcomes often tied to top-level meetings, according to a Reuters report.
"This is not about seeking specific deliverables or outcomes," the official said, adding in reference to the People's Republic of China: "As we compete with the PRC, President Biden expects President Xi and the PRC to play by the rules of road—and he will make that point throughout the meeting."
Meanwhile, addressing APEC leaders on Friday, Xi spoke of the need to "stick to dialogue rather than confrontation, inclusiveness rather than exclusion, and integration rather than decoupling," an apparent reference to U.S. moves to make key supply chains independent of China.
Climate is a priority for Biden, and China and the United States, the world's two biggest carbon emitters, unveiled a deal at the UN conference on climate change in Glasgow this week to step up cooperation. The measures included cutting methane emissions, phasing out coal consumption and protecting forests.
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