Biden, Xi set to meet Monday to discuss tensions

By Aamer Madhani | Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping volition clasp their much-anticipated virtual acme connected Monday evening arsenic the 2 sides look to dial backmost tensions aft a unsmooth commencement to the U.S.-China narration since Biden took bureau earlier this year.

The White House is mounting debased expectations for the video telephone betwixt the leaders. Biden looks to accent that the 2 nations request to acceptable guardrails successful deepening areas of struggle successful the progressively analyzable narration betwixt the 2 nations. White House officials said that nary large announcements are expected to travel from the meeting.

“I wouldn’t acceptable the expectation…that this is intended to person large deliverables oregon outcomes,” said White House property caput Jen Psaki, who added that the 2 leaders would sermon however to negociate the countries’ contention and cooperate successful areas wherever interests align.

The gathering volition beryllium the 3rd engagement betwixt the 2 leaders since February. It comes aft the U.S. and China this week pledged astatine U.N. clime talks successful Glasgow, Scotland to summation their practice and velocity up enactment to rein successful climate-damaging emissions.

White House nationalist information advisor Jake Sullivan and elder Chinese overseas argumentation advisor Yang Jiechi came to an statement connected holding the Biden-Xi virtual acme by year’s extremity erstwhile they met past period for talks successful Zurich but the 2 sides had not settled connected a date.

The virtual gathering was projected aft Biden, who spent a important magnitude of clip with Xi erstwhile the 2 were vice presidents, mentioned during a September telephone telephone with the Chinese person that helium would similar to beryllium capable to spot Xi again, according to the White House.

Xi has not near China during the coronavirus pandemic. White House officials projected a virtual acme arsenic the champion disposable substitute for the 2 leaders to person a substantive speech connected a fig of issues that person enactment strains connected the U.S.-China relationship.

“We anticipation the U.S. volition enactment unneurotic with China to jointly strive to marque the leaders’ acme a occurrence and bring China-U.S. ties backmost to the close way of dependable and unchangeable development,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Friday.

There has been nary shortage of hostility successful the narration successful caller months arsenic Biden has made wide helium sees Beijing’s actions connected a fig of fronts arsenic concerning.

The president has criticized China for quality rights abuses against taste minorities successful northwest China, squelching pro-democracy efforts successful Hong Kong, and resisting planetary unit to cooperate afloat with investigations into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Tensions person besides been exacerbated precocious by the Chinese military’s flying dozens of sorties adjacent the self-ruled land of Taiwan, which Beijing considers portion of its territory.

The White House suggested that Biden would rise his concerns connected galore of those issues during Monday’s meeting. “There volition beryllium a wide scope of topics that volition beryllium discussed and the President is surely not going to clasp backmost connected areas wherever helium is concerned,” Psaki said.

Biden, astatine the Group of 20 gathering successful Rome and again astatine the U.N. clime gathering, criticized Xi for failing to amusement up to the summits, wherever satellite leaders discussed the mode guardant connected the pandemic and steps to easiness the interaction of clime change.

“I deliberation it’s been a large mistake, rather frankly, for China … not showing up, ” Biden said successful Glasgow. “The remainder of the satellite is going to look to China and say, what worth added person they provided?”

Both leaders took portion successful Friday’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) virtual meeting, wherever leaders discussed efforts to extremity the COVID-19 pandemic and enactment the planetary economical recovery.

Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen successful Beijing contributed reporting.