Ahead of a key meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in San Francisco, US President Joe Biden on Tuesday implied that he hopes to get back on a "normal course of corresponding" to the extent that both leaders would pick the phone and talk to each other in case of a crisis.
The four-hour meeting between Biden and Xi is scheduled to take place at San Mateo County's Filoli Estate. The leaders are expected to address issues related to trade, Taiwan and managing fraught US-Chinese relations in the first engagement between the leaders of the world's two biggest economies in nearly a year.
Moreover, they also expected to discuss the conflicts in Israel and Ukraine, areas of potential cooperation like climate change and countering narcotics trafficking, deep disagreements over human rights issues and military escalation in the South China Sea. The relations between the two sides have deteriorated sharply over the years.
"To get back on a normal course of corresponding, being able to pick up the phone and talk to one another when there's another crisis. Being able to make sure our militaries still have contact with one another. We’re not trying to decouple from China, but what we’re trying to do is change the relationship for the better," Biden told reporters before departing for San Francisco on Tuesday.
Separately, a US official confirmed that Biden and Xi are expected to announce an agreement that would restore talks under what’s known as the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement, aimed to improve safety in the air and sea.
Chinese President arrives in San Francisco
Meanwhile, Chinese leader Xi reached the US on Tuesday afternoon to participate in the 30th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in San Francisco. He will meet Biden in California today for the first meeting between the duo in almost a year amid tense relations.
The two leaders arrived in the city to be greeted by hundreds of demonstrators who lined up along their motorcade routes, waving Chinese, Taiwanese and Tibetan flags as well as signs in support of and opposition to the Chinese leader.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement the leaders would discuss the “continued importance of maintaining open lines of communication” and how they “can continue to responsibly manage competition and work together where our interests align, particularly on transnational challenges that affect the international community.”
The course of the US-China relationship is likely to influence the US presidential election in 2024, although it is unlikely to be the decisive issue. Pew Research estimates that 83% of Americans have a negative opinion of China and are worried about Taiwan's future as well as China's place in the globe. However, sentiments in China toward the US might be moderating.
Why have US-China relations declined?
Biden and Xi last met nearly a year ago on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. In the nearly three-hour meeting, Biden objected directly to China's ”coercive and increasingly aggressive actions” toward Taiwan and discussed Russia's invasion of Ukraine and other issues.
The Chinese president last came to the US in 2017, when former President Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Biden has yet to host Xi on US soil, and the two leaders last met in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit there.
The relationship between the two nations has been mostly complex, and at times, strenuous since the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan in 1949. Since then, the two countries have experienced periods of both tension and cooperation over issues including trade, climate change, and Taiwan.
Differences in the already complicated US-Chinese relationship have only sharpened in the last year, with Beijing bristling over new US export controls on advanced technology; Biden ordering the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon after it traversed the continental United States; and Chinese anger over a stopover in the US by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen earlier this year, among other issues.
China severed military communications with the United States after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August 2022. US officials said that Biden is determined to restore military ties, the lack of which raises the risk of "operational incidents or miscalculations spiralling into crisis or conflict".
Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make the island's decades-old de facto independence permanent, a step US leaders say they don't support. US follows the "One China" policy and does not formally have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but maintains that Taipei is an important partner in the Indo-Pacific.
(with inputs from agencies)
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