SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 15 (Portal) – U.S. President Joe Biden will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday for the first time in a year for talks that will ease tensions between the warring superpowers over military conflicts, drug trafficking and artificial intelligence could.
But profound progress in overcoming the vast differences that divide the world’s economic superpowers may have to wait for another day.
Officials on both sides of the Pacific have set expectations low as Biden and Xi will discuss Taiwan, the South China Sea, the Israel-Hamas war, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, North Korea and human rights – all areas where the… The Leaders have been unable to resolve long-standing differences.
Biden and Xi arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday for their meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
The leaders of the 21-member group of countries – and hundreds of CEOs in San Francisco courting them – are meeting amid China’s economic weakness, Beijing’s simmering territorial feuds with its neighbors and a Middle East conflict that has left the United States isolated from theirs Allies separate.
Efforts to carefully choreograph Xi’s visit could fail in the troubled northern California city, despite efforts to get homeless people off the streets. The route from the airport to the conference site was lined with protesters for and against China’s ruling Communist Party, an unusual sight for Xi, who last visited the United States in 2017.
Biden has sought direct diplomacy with Xi, betting that a personal relationship he has cultivated for a dozen years with the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong could save increasingly hostile bilateral ties.
Xi and Biden are expected to meet far from the conference site at a vast estate outside San Francisco carefully chosen for its security, serenity and isolation.
“The table has been set … over the course of many weeks for what we hope will be a very productive, open and constructive conversation,” John Kirby, a White House spokesman, told reporters traveling aboard Air Force One.
[1/2]U.S. President Joe Biden exits Air Force One at San Francisco International Airport as he arrives for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco, California, United States, on November 14, 2023. Portal/Brittany Hosea-Small/ File Photo Purchase license rights
IRAN, ELECTION INTERFERENCE
During the meeting, which could last hours, Biden is expected to press Xi to use China’s influence to pressure Iran not to take provocative actions or encourage its proxies to intervene in the fight to prevent a regional escalation by Israel -To prevent Hamas conflict.
He is also expected to raise Chinese “influence operations” in foreign elections and the status of U.S. citizens who Washington believes are unjustly detained in China.
U.S. officials expected concrete steps to resume staff-level talks between the two countries on issues ranging from military-to-military communications to reducing the flow of fentanyl to managing the growth of artificial intelligence technologies and managing trade and climate. Many of the chemicals used to make fentanyl come from China, U.S. officials say.
Biden, 80, presides over an economy that has exceeded expectations and those of most rich nations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. He is unpopular with voters in his home country and is seeking a second term amid concerns about the stability of U.S. democracy.
He has brought together the country’s traditional allies from Europe to Asia to confront Russia in Ukraine, although some have disagreements over the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Xi, a decade younger than Biden, has tightened control over politics, heads of state, the media and the military and amended the constitution. Recently, worsening economic challenges have caused the country to veer off its three-decade rocket-fueled growth trajectory.
Officials across the region expect Beijing to test Washington in the coming weeks, exploiting a perceived shift in U.S. focus toward Ukraine and Israel as the country pursues its own ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.
Biden is expected to tell Xi that U.S. commitments in the Indo-Pacific remain unchanged. China has alarmed its neighbors in recent years with moves in the Taiwan Strait, South China Sea and East China Sea that have been internationally controversial. Biden will also express a special commitment to the security of the Philippines, one of the US officials said.
Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Michael Martina and Jeff Mason; Editing by Heather Timmons and Stephen Coates
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