Understand what is at stake for the US and China in the meeting between Biden and Xi Jinping

US President Joe Biden meets in person with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday for his first in-person meeting since Biden took office.

Having further consolidated his power at last month’s Communist Party Congress, Xi is heading into the meeting as the strongest Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.

Biden, meanwhile, arrived in Asia after his party’s better-than-expected performance in the US midterm elections – with Democrats projected to keep the Senate in a big win. Asked on Sunday whether the results allowed him to face Monday’s encounter with a stronger hand, Biden expressed confidence.

“I know I’m coming in stronger,” he told the press.

The stakes for the discussions are high. In a world reeling from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic and the ravages of climate change, the two great powers need to work together more than ever to instill stability – rather than generating deeper tensions over the course of a long time. geopolitical faults.

However, expectations for the meeting are low. Caught up in a growing rivalry between great powers, the US and China disagree with each other on almost every important issue, from Taiwan, the war in Ukraine, North Korea, the transfer of technology to the shape of the world order.

Perhaps the only real common ground the two sides share at the meeting is their limited hopes for what might come out of it.

A White House official said Thursday that Biden wants to use the talks to “build a floor” for the relationship – in other words, to prevent it from freely falling into open conflict.

The main purpose of the meeting is not to reach agreements or handovers – the two leaders will not release any joint statements afterwards – but to gain a better understanding of each other’s priorities and reduce misunderstandings, according to the US official.

Beijing sent similar messages, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Monday saying China hopes the two countries can “properly manage differences, promote mutually beneficial cooperation, avoid misunderstandings and miscalculations.”

Start of meeting

Both leaders made brief opening remarks and exchanged pleasantries in front of the press, before reporters were quickly ushered out of the room for the start of high-stakes negotiations.

On the US side, Biden was joined by a team that included Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and US Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China Nicholas Burns.

Xi was flanked by officials, including Chinese Communist Party General Office Director Ding Xuexiang and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The Chinese leader is also joined by several newly promoted supporters.

Sitting next to Xi on the right is Ding Xuexiang, Xi’s chief of staff and one of his most loyal and trusted advisers. Ding, 60, was promoted from the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo to the Supreme Standing Committee as its youngest member in the party’s National Congress last month.

He is the most senior Chinese official at the meeting after Xi, and is expected to be named deputy executive prime minister to help the new prime minister run the world’s second-largest economy.

Also seated at the table is He Lifeng, another close aide to Xi who was promoted to the Politburo at the congress.

He, who heads China’s state planning agency, is expected to replace the country’s economic czar, Liu He, as deputy prime minister for economic affairs.

Xi began a third term with an even greater concentration of power, after removing top party leaders from the main governing body to make room for his own allies.

The week-long Communist Party Congress, which concluded in late October, saw Xi take on a norm-breaking third term – piling up an even greater concentration of power after removing top party leaders from the main governing body to make room for their own allies.

Biden’s Team

The US president began talks with Xi Jinping, flanked by members of his government, who are said to have played key roles in preparing the president for the conversation.

Biden’s delegation included two cabinet-level officials — a relative rarity for bilateral meetings that is a reflection of the importance the administration is placing on the meeting. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sat on either side of Biden as the group took their seats in front of the Chinese delegation.

Blinken has been a leading figure shaping current US policy towards China, laying out the administration’s approach in a long-awaited speech in May that called Beijing “the most serious long-term challenge to the international order”.

Yellen has repeatedly taken a firm line on the need to reduce U.S. dependence on Chinese supply chains, but expressed interest in more focused commitments — including on how U.S. and Chinese policies affect the global economy — during remarks to reporters at start of the day.

Also at the table was national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who met with China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi at a key meeting in June in Luxembourg – seen as a precursor to the Biden-Xi summit – and also joined the notoriously contentious meeting between US and Chinese officials in Alaska alongside Blinken in March 2021.

Biden’s delegation also included several Asia-focused officials, including US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink. In addition, four National Security Council officials with a focus on Asia and China were also present at the talks, according to a list provided by the White House.

G20: Biden and Xi Jinping in Bali

world attention

Xi Jinping said the world was paying attention to the high-stakes meeting between him and US President Biden.

“Currently, the China-US relationship is in such a situation that we are all very concerned about it, because this is not the fundamental interest of our two countries and peoples, and it is not what the international community expects (of) us,” Xi said in his opening speech at the meeting.

“As leaders of the two major countries, we need to chart the right course for the US-China relationship. We need to find the right direction for the bilateral relationship going forward and elevate the relationship,” she added, speaking through a translator.

“The world expects China and the United States to properly handle the relationship. Our meeting has attracted the world’s attention, so we need to work with all countries to bring more hope for world peace, greater confidence in global stability and strong momentum for development,” said the Chinese leader.

Xi said he was ready to have a “sincere and in-depth” exchange of views with Biden on issues of strategic importance in China-US relations and on major global and regional issues.

What’s at stake for the world’s two largest economies

When President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, there were expectations on both sides of the Pacific that he would pull back from the trade war his predecessor started with China nearly three years earlier.

Frustrated by China’s huge trade surplus and accusing it of stealing US intellectual property, former President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods in June 2018.

Beijing responded with its own tariffs, and the spiral continued until a so-called truce was agreed in 2020.

Instead of reversing those measures, Biden quietly escalated the trade conflict. In October, his government imposed new restrictions designed to limit China’s access to technology critical to its growing military power.

The leaders of the world’s two largest economies come together against this backdrop of increasing competition and amid fears of a global recession.

Speaking to reporters in Bali, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the meeting was intended to stabilize the relationship and expressed hopes it would lay the groundwork for bilateral economic engagement.

The stakes are high for both sides, as well as the rest of the world. China, with its nearly $18 trillion economy, has been the main driver of global growth in recent years. But Covid-19 lockdowns and a housing crisis have slowed its expansion this year.

While expectations for the meeting are low, it is crucial that the two sides re-engage, Mattie Bekink, Shanghai-based director of the Economist Intelligence Corporate Network in China, told CNN Business 🇧🇷

For decades, there have been regular lines of communication between US officials and their Chinese counterparts, but most of those lanes were cut after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in July.

“It’s important that heads of state speak directly,” she said. “There is a lack of trust in this relationship. If Xi and Biden send the signal that it’s time to resume communications, I hope it gets to the lowest levels.”

Source: CNN Brasil

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