By Takuya Karube,
U.S. President Joe Biden is prepared to hold face-to-face talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in San Francisco in mid-November, senior officials said Friday, after a series of meetings with China's top diplomat Wang Yi.
The officials of the Biden administration told reporters that the United States agreed with Wang in Washington to work toward a summit of the two presidents on the fringes of this year's leaders' gathering of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
"I will leave it to the Chinese side to figure out if and when they make that announcement," said one of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, hinting that the U.S. administration's public remarks were intended to be "careful" as Beijing traditionally does not confirm a trip of its top leader until the last minute.
Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and top national security adviser Jake Sullivan all held talks separately with Wang, the most senior foreign policy official in China's Communist Party.
Biden underscored the need to maintain open lines of communication to manage the intense competition between the two countries "responsibly," the White House said.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Biden's meeting with Wang lasted about an hour and the U.S. president viewed it as a "positive development and a good opportunity" for the two countries to keep the increased communications going, despite numerous disagreements.
Kirby said Biden "fully expects to meet again" with Xi and "we're confident that that's going to happen," when asked about the prospects for one-on-one talks on the sidelines of the APEC summit involving 21 Pacific Rim economies, including Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Peru and Thailand.
Biden also said during his meeting with Wang that the United States and China must work together to deal with global challenges, according to the White House, which announced Friday night that the U.S. president will travel to San Francisco on Nov. 14.
Blinken and Wang, who doubles as foreign minister, kicked off their talks on Thursday evening, against the backdrop of a monthslong effort by Washington and Beijing to lay the groundwork for the first talks in a year between Biden and Xi.
Since Xi last landed on U.S. soil in April 2017, the U.S.-China relationship has become even more tense and complicated, with disagreements on issues spanning from Taiwan and the South China Sea to trade restrictions and human rights.
The two countries also take different positions on Russia's war on Ukraine and the conflict that erupted earlier this month between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Wang's visit to Washington marked the first by a Chinese foreign minister since 2018, and Blinken and Sullivan, held discussions with him that lasted six and three hours, respectively, according to the senior officials.
They said the hot-button issues discussed also included North Korea's "provocative" actions and the importance of reopening military-to-military communication channels between the United States and China.
"We are again, of course, pressing for resumption. I think we're hopeful that we'll see some progress, but I don't have anything specific for you right now," the official said about the military-to-military channels, which have remained shut for more than a year.
Nonetheless, the United States and China have both recognized the importance of managing disputes appropriately and ensuring their intense competition does not veer into conflict.
Blinken, who is hosting Wang's three-day visit to Washington through Saturday, traveled to Beijing in June. The top U.S. diplomat also met with Xi during the trip, which was the first Cabinet-level visit to China since the Biden administration began in January 2021.
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