Biden plans November meeting with China’s Xi: Washington Post
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Mr Joe Biden and Mr Xi Jinping’s last meeting was on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Indonesia in November 2022.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON – The White House is making plans for a face-to-face meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November as the two countries seek to stabilise troubled relations, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
Ties between the world’s two largest economies have been strained in recent years due to a number of issues including Taiwan, the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, allegations of spying, human rights issues and trade tariffs, among others.
The newspaper, which cited unidentified senior US officials, quoted one of them as saying the possibility of a meeting was “pretty firm”.
“We’re beginning the process” of planning, the official was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not comment specifically on the report.
A spokesperson for the embassy said in an e-mailed statement that the two countries remained in communication and needed to expand “good faith” cooperation.
The White House did not have an immediate comment.
Mr Biden and Mr Xi’s last meeting was on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G-20) summit
The planned meeting would follow other high-level engagements between the two countries in recent months, including visits by high-profile US officials to China such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in July and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in August.
More recently, Mr Blinken met Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng Jake Sullivan met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi
China’s top security agency hinted in September that any meeting between Mr Xi and Mr Biden will depend on the United States “showing sufficient sincerity”.
US officials such as Ms Raimondo and Dr Yellen have recently said that the US did not want to decouple from China, but Beijing has expressed concern over US approval of arms sales and military financing to Taiwan.
San Francisco will host an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November that Mr Xi may attend.
Mr Xi recently skipped the G-20 summit
