USA and China: USA: Biden and Xi plan to meet at the APEC summit in Peru

According to the White House, US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping want to meet again in person for the first time in a year. The conversation between the two is planned on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru on Saturday, a high-ranking US government official announced.

Given severe tensions between the world’s two largest economies, the two presidents had communicated only sparingly in recent years. The meeting comes shortly before Biden leaves office: the Democrat will be replaced in the White House by Republican Donald Trump in January.

Topics range from trade to Ukraine

At the meeting, Biden plans to take stock of “efforts to deal responsibly” with a view to competition between the two countries, said the US government representative. Another topic will be Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

The government representative emphasized as a success that the USA and China had resumed communication between the armed forces last year. “In his numerous conversations with President Xi, President Biden has consistently emphasized the importance of respecting human rights, and I expect he will do so again.”

Meetings in Bali and California

Biden and Xi last sat down for a conversation a year ago, in November 2023, on the sidelines of the APEC summit in California – after a whole year of complete radio silence without a single phone call. The much-noticed meeting took place far away from the summit site and in an idyllic setting: in a magnificent property outside of San Francisco. Previously, Biden and Xi had not seen each other or spoken to each other in person for a whole year, since the G20 summit in Bali in November 2022.

The aim of the meeting in California was to stabilize relations between the two countries and to stimulate communication between the two governments and to direct it into an orderly course – including and above all the exchange between the armed forces of both countries. Last April, Biden and Xi fulfilled their intention and spoke to each other on the phone for the first time since their emergency meeting in California. There were also meetings between high-ranking officials from both countries. Nevertheless, the relationship remains tense.

The background to this is, among other things, economic sanctions by the USA against China and fears in the West that the Chinese army could invade Taiwan. The island republic, which is only separated from China by a strait, has had a democratic government for decades. However, China sees the country with more than 23 million inhabitants as part of its territory. There are fears that China could annex Taiwan using military force.

Biden had promised Taipei military assistance in such an event. The area around Taiwan is often the scene of military demonstrations of force. At the meeting with Xi, Biden will emphasize “the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the US official said.

The focus is on Trump

Trump also took a tough stance towards China during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021 and introduced large-scale punitive tariffs on goods from China, which his successor Biden later maintained. Trump’s personnel decisions so far indicate that he wants to continue a tough China policy in his second term.

The US government representative exercised restraint in response to questions about this. The next administration must find ways to deal with “these difficult and complicated relationships” with China, she said. “I cannot comment on what the next government will or will not do – and what policy direction it will take.”