Biden and Xi Jinping Set to Meet in San Francisco: Key Points to Watch

Reported by Japan’s Kyodo News
President Xi also plans to attend a dinner with American businessmen

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to hold a bilateral summit at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) event in San Francisco on the 15th (local time).

On the 8th, Japan’s Kyodo News reported this, citing an anonymous high-ranking U.S. government official, saying that the U.S. and China are in the final stages of preparation for the summit.

The media outlet reported that the U.S.-China summit will be held on the first day of the APEC conference, from the 15th to the 17th of this month. If the bilateral meeting between President Biden and President Xi is realized, it will be the first face-to-face meeting in a year since the G20 summit held in Indonesia last year. China has not announced whether President Xi will attend APEC, but the White House has previously stated that a U.S.-China summit will be held on the sidelines of APEC.

Bloomberg reported that President Xi will likely attend a dinner with U.S. business executives scheduled for next week in San Francisco. Amid slowing the Chinese economy and the U.S.-China conflict, western companies are avoiding investing in China. One of the main tasks for President Xi during his visit to the U.S. is to reassure foreign investors, the media outlet reported. Last month, President Xi attended the One Belt, One Road forum, where he declared a complete abolition of foreign investment restrictions, revealing his intention to attract foreign capital.

It remains to be seen whether the bilateral relationship, which quickly deteriorated after China’s reconnaissance balloon incident earlier this year, can be partially restored through this summit. U.S.-China relations quickly froze after the U.S.’s semiconductor export restrictions to China and China’s reconnaissance balloon incident in February. Since then, the U.S. has repeatedly emphasized that the purpose of its policy towards China is not ‘decoupling’ but ‘de-risking’ while sending high-ranking officials to China to resume dialogue. At the end of last month, Wang Yi, a member of the Central Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and the Foreign Minister, visited Washington D.C. and held a meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State, raising expectations for the possibility of a bilateral summit in November.

However, it is unclear whether this summit will lead to an improvement in U.S.-China relations. Kyodo News reported that while the U.S. hopes to resume military dialogue with China to prevent accidental clashes, there are complicated issues, such as the Taiwan issue and U.S. semiconductor export restrictions.

By. Kwon Ha Young