The Biden administration hopes to assure China that it does not seek conflict at a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit.
President Joe Biden will meet with Chinese communist leader Xi Jinping next week in an effort to stabilize the two nations’ fraught relationship.
The two leaders will discuss a plethora of potentially explosive issues, including Chinese election interference, the regime’s growing support for Russia and Iran, and the future of Taiwan, according to senior administration officials.
“We’ve indicated to Chinese interlocutors that basically every element in our bilateral relationship will be on the table for discussion,” one official said during a press call previewing the event.
“I think it’s fair to say we’re going to cover a whole range of topics that are potentially contentious.”
The meeting will take place on Nov. 18 in the San Francisco Bay area. It will be the two leaders’ second in-person meeting during President Biden’s administration.
The Biden administration hopes to assure China that it does not seek conflict despite a growing number of initiatives intended to insulate the U.S. economy from the communist power’s malign influence.
“We’re clear eyed about this,” one official said. “We know efforts to shape or reform China over several decades have failed. We think diplomacy is how we clear up misperceptions, signal, communicate, avoid surprises, and explain our competitive steps.
“We are in competition with China. But we do not seek conflict, confrontation, or a new Cold War.”
Biden Will ‘Reaffirm’ Xi on Taiwan
A key issue—and perhaps the only one capable of compelling the world’s two largest economies into war with one another—is the future of Taiwan.
The Taiwan issue looms especially large for the two powers now, as Taiwan enters an election year and may select an administration that is more favorable to China than the United States.
“In every conversation, we’ve had cross-strait issues absolutely come up. If we look towards next year, the Taiwan election, the presidential transition and, of course, our own election, [could] make this quite a bumpy year,” one official said.
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