Biden, Xi to meet face-to-face amid superpower tensions | Lifestyle

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP) — President Joe Biden will sit down with Chinese language President Xi Jinping on Monday for his or her first in-person assembly for the reason that U.S. president took workplace practically two years in the past, amid growing tensions between the 2 superpowers as they vie for world affect.

Each males are coming into the extremely anticipated assembly — held on the margins of the Group of 20 summit of world leaders in Indonesia — with bolstered political standing at dwelling. Democrats triumphantly held onto control of the Senate, with an opportunity to spice up their ranks by one in a runoff election in Georgia subsequent month, whereas Xi was awarded a third five-year term in October by the Communist Social gathering’s nationwide congress.

“We’ve little or no misunderstanding,” Biden informed reporters in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the place he participated in a gathering of southeast Asian nations earlier than leaving for Indonesia. “We simply obtained to determine the place the purple traces are and … what are an important issues to every of us going into the following two years.”

Biden added: “His circumstance has modified, to state the plain, at dwelling.” The president mentioned of his personal state of affairs: “I do know I’m coming in stronger.”

White Home aides have repeatedly sought to minimize any notion of battle between the 2 nations and have emphasised that they consider the 2 international locations can work in tandem on shared challenges resembling local weather change and well being safety.

However relations between the U.S. and China have turn into more and more strained throughout Biden’s presidency.

As president, Biden has repeatedly taken China to process for human rights abuses towards the Uyghur folks and different ethnic minorities, crackdowns on democracy activists in Hong Kong, coercive commerce practices, army provocations towards self-ruled Taiwan and variations over Russia’s prosecution of its conflict towards Ukraine. Chinese language officers have largely avoided public criticism of Russia’s conflict, though Beijing has averted direct assist resembling supplying arms.

Taiwan has emerged as one of the contentious points between Washington and Beijing. A number of instances in his presidency, Biden has mentioned the U.S. would defend the island — which China has eyed for eventual unification — in case of a Beijing-led invasion. However administration officers have harassed every time that the U.S.’s “One China” coverage has not modified. That coverage acknowledges the federal government in Beijing whereas permitting for casual relations and protection ties with Taipei, and its posture of “strategic ambiguity” over whether or not whether or not it might reply militarily if the had been island attacked.

Tensions flared even larger when Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., visited Taiwan in August, prompting China to retaliate with army drills and the firing of ballistic missiles into close by waters.

The Biden administration additionally blocked exports of advanced computer chips to China final month — a nationwide safety transfer that bolsters U.S. competitors towards Beijing. Chinese language officers rapidly condemned the restrictions.

And although the 2 males have held 5 telephone or video calls throughout Biden’s presidency, White Home officers say these encounters are not any substitute for Biden having the ability to meet and measurement up Xi in particular person. That process is all of the extra vital after Xi strengthened his grip on energy by the get together congress, as lower-level Chinese language officers have been unable or unwilling to talk for his or her chief.

Requested concerning the anticipated assembly, China’s overseas ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian mentioned final week at a information briefing that China was on the lookout for “win-win cooperation with the U.S.” whereas reiterating Beijing’s considerations concerning the U.S. stance on Taiwan.

“The U.S. must cease obscuring, hollowing out and distorting the One China precept, abide by the essential norms in worldwide relations, together with respecting different international locations’ sovereignty, territorial integrity and noninterference in different international locations’ inside affairs,” he mentioned.

Xi has stayed near dwelling all through the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the place he has enforced a “zero-COVID” coverage that has resulted in mass lockdowns which have roiled the worldwide provide chains.

He made his first journey outdoors China since begin of the pandemic in September with a cease in Kazakhstan after which onto Uzbekistan to participate within the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Group with Putin and different leaders of the Central Asian safety group.

White Home officers and their Chinese language counterparts have spent weeks negotiating out the entire particulars of the assembly, which is going down at Xi’s lodge with translators offering simultaneous interpretation by headsets.

U.S. officers had been wanting to see how Xi approaches the Biden sit-down after being newly empowered with a tradition-breaking third time period and consolidating his place because the unquestioned chief of the state, saying they might wait to evaluate whether or not that made him kind of more likely to hunt down areas of cooperation with the U.S.

Biden and Xi are every planning to convey small delegations into the dialogue, with U.S. officers anticipating that Xi would convey newly-elevated authorities officers to the sit-down and expressing hope that it might result in extra substantive engagements down the road.

Earlier than assembly with Xi, Biden first held a sit-down with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who’s internet hosting the G-20 summit, to announce a spread of latest improvement initiatives for the archipelago nation, together with investments in local weather, safety, and training.

Many of Biden’s conversations and engagements throughout his three-country tour — which took him to Egypt and Cambodia earlier than he landed on the island of Bali on Sunday — had been, by design, making ready him for his assembly with Xi and sending a sign that the U.S. would compete in areas the place Xi has additionally labored to increase his nation’s affect.

In Phnom Penh, Biden sought to claim U.S. affect and dedication in a area the place China has additionally been making inroads and the place many countries really feel allied with Beijing. He additionally sought enter on what he ought to elevate with Xi in conversations with leaders from Japan, South Korea and Australia.

The 2 males have a historical past that dates to Biden’s time as vp, when he launched into a get-to-know-you mission with Xi, then China’s vp, in travels that introduced Xi to Washington and Biden by travels on the Tibetan plateau. The U.S. president has emphasised that he is aware of Xi properly and he needs to make use of this in-person assembly to raised perceive the place the 2 males stand.

Biden was keen on tucking references to his conversations with Xi into his travels across the U.S. forward of the midterm elections, utilizing the Chinese language chief’s choice for autocratic governance to make his personal case to voters why democracy ought to prevail. That view was considerably validated on the worldwide stage, as White Home aides mentioned a number of world leaders approached Biden throughout his time in Cambodia to inform him they watched the end result of the midterm elections intently and that the outcomes had been a triumph for democracy.

Biden deliberate to ship public remarks and take questions from reporters after his assembly with Xi.

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AP author Josh Boak in Washington contributed.