By Takuya Karube,
U.S. President Joe Biden will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping next Wednesday on the sidelines of an economic conference in San Francisco, the White House said, with the two prioritizing the creation of a "framework" to better manage their nations' fraught relationship that has been characterized by friction and mistrust.
The first sit-down in a year, also formally announced Friday by China, comes after months of coordination between the world's two major powers. Senior Biden administration officials said everything from Taiwan and the South China Sea to semiconductor trade and human rights will be on the agenda.
"Much of what we're seeking to do is to create a framework for a successful management of the difficult...complicated (and) complex relationship," one of the officials said. "I think you will see evidence of that next week."
Xi will make a four-day visit to San Francisco from Tuesday for the meeting with Biden and to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
It said the presidents will have "in-depth communication" on issues of "strategic, overarching and fundamental" importance in shaping bilateral ties and key topics associated with world peace and development.
The U.S. official said the administration's primary goal is to stabilize its relationship with China in ways that support people in the United States and its allies and partners by removing some areas of misunderstanding.
Stressing that the reopening of military-to-military communication channels is an important objective, the official said, "Intense competition requires and demands intense diplomacy to manage tensions."
Besides familiar bilateral issues, Biden will also raise China's approaches to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, according to the senior officials.
Xi has not set foot on U.S. soil since April 2017. The upcoming face-to-face meeting will be only their second during the Biden presidency.
Their meeting will take place in the San Francisco Bay Area, the officials said, hinting at a location away from the city center, famous for its large Chinatown, apparently out of concern over a pro-democracy protest targetting Xi.
The officials said additional information on the meeting's location would be withheld for security reasons.
The United States and China had virtually no direct contact at senior levels for a period this year. But government-to-government communications have increased especially since Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan held hours of talks with China's top diplomat Wang Yi in Vienna in May.
On Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and China's economic policy chief He Lifeng concluded two days of talks in San Francisco to lay the groundwork for the Biden-Xi meeting.
Yellen said at a press conference that she and He covered a range of economic issues and challenges, including trade restrictions imposed by both sides citing national security concerns, the health of the Chinese economy and debt relief for low-income countries.
"We agreed that in-depth and frank discussions matter, particularly when we disagree," she said. "This is not just communication for communication's sake. It allows us to avoid misunderstandings and unintended escalation, make informed decisions and work toward specific policy outcomes."
While it is unlikely Biden and Xi will make much progress in bridging their differences on contentious issues, the U.S. officials said the two countries will explore potential areas of cooperation where their interests align, especially transnational challenges such as climate change and counternarcotics.
Biden and Xi previously met one-on-one in November last year for three and a half hours during a Group of 20 summit on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
It was the first in-person meeting between the countries' presidents in more than three years. Biden and Xi agreed to control the intense competition between their nations and to maintain open lines of communication. The leaders also discussed the need to develop "principles" to help them advance those agreements.
But U.S.-China relations deteriorated markedly early this year after Biden ordered an alleged Chinese spy balloon to be shot down over the United States.
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