SAN FRANCISCO – Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping head into their large meeting at a rustic property on Wednesday hoping to stabilize U.S.-China members of the family after a length of tumult, but the U.S. president additionally is ready to confront his counterpart on tough issues reminiscent of business, Beijing’s burgeoning relationship with Iran and human rights issues.
The two leaders, who will meet on the sidelines of a summit of Asian-Pacific leaders, final spoke a 12 months in the past. Since then, already fraught ties between the 2 financial superpowers were additional strained through the U.S. downing of a Chinese secret agent balloon that had traversed the continental U.S. and over variations on the self-ruled island of Taiwan, China’s hacking of a Biden reputable’s emails and different incidents.
The two leaders are in California for the yearly Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation discussion board, but will grasp their one-on-one talks at Filoli Estate, a rustic area and museum about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of San Francisco, in line with 3 senior management officers. The officers asked anonymity to speak about the site, which had now not but been showed through the White House or the Chinese executive because of tight safety.
Both males are in quest of to turn the arena that whilst the U.S. and China are financial competition, they don’t seem to be locked in a winner-take-all faceoff with international implications. Their relationship has been increasingly more outlined through variations over export controls, Taiwan and the conflicts within the Middle East and Europe.
Biden is anticipated to let Xi know that he would love China to make use of its sway over Iran to shed light on that Tehran or its proxies will have to now not take motion that would result in growth of the Israel-Hamas warfare. The Biden management additionally sees the Chinese, a large purchaser of Iranian oil, as having substantial leverage with Iran, which is a significant backer of Hamas.
Biden on Tuesday billed the meeting as a possibility to get Washington and Beijing back “on a normal course corresponding” as soon as once more.
But White House National Council spokesman John Kirby mentioned Biden used to be “not going to be afraid to confront where confrontation is needed on issues where we don’t see eye to eye.”
“We’re also not going to be afraid, nor should we be afraid, as a confident nation, to engage in diplomacy on ways which we can cooperate with China — on climate change, for instance, and clean energy technology,” Kirby said.
Biden will be focused on managing the countries’ increasingly fierce economic competition and keeping open lines of communication to prevent misunderstandings that could lead to direct conflict between the two powers.
While he’s expected to defend U.S. expansion of export controls on semiconductor chips, he also will assure Xi that the U.S. is not trying to wage economic war with Beijing amid continuing signs that China’s economy is struggling to recover from the disruptions of the pandemic.
Xi, meanwhile, is looking for assurances from Biden that the U.S. will not support Taiwan independence, start a new cold war or suppress China’s economic growth. He’s also keen to show the U.S. that China is still a good place to invest.
Even before their meeting, there were some signs of a thaw: The State Department on Tuesday announced that the U.S. and China — two of the world’s biggest polluters — had agreed to pursue efforts to triple renewable energy capacity globally by 2030, through wind, solar and other renewables.
There was also hope for some concrete agreements to come out of the meeting Wednesday, including on re-establishing military-to-military communications that have largely gone dark since August 2022, and on efforts to curb illicit fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is increasingly responsible for U.S. drug overdoses. Many of the chemicals used to manufacture the drug come from China.
The APEC summit events already have attracted considerable demonstrations and more were expected Wednesday, including protests against Xi and against multinational corporations focused on profits.
In the hours before the meeting, White House officials said Biden was coming into the talks bolstered by signs the U.S. economy is in a stronger position than China’s, and that the U.S. is building stronger stronger alliances throughout the Pacific.
The U.S. president, speaking at a campaign fundraiser on Tuesday evening, pointed to his upcoming meeting as an example of how “reestablished American leadership in the world is taking hold.” As for China, the president told donors, it has ”real problems.”
The International Monetary Fund not too long ago lower expansion forecasts for China, predicting financial expansion of five% this 12 months and four.2% in 2024, down moderately from earlier forecasts. Last month, Beijing released economic data that confirmed costs falling because of slack call for from shoppers and companies.
Biden, in the meantime, has taken satisfaction in proving unsuitable a big swath of economists who predicted that tens of millions of layoffs and a recession could be had to carry down inflation. The Labor Department mentioned Tuesday that shopper costs rose at an annual tempo of three.2% every year, down from a June 2022 height of 9.1%. Meanwhile, employers stay hiring and the unemployment charge has held under 4% for just about two years.
Xi, after his meeting with Biden on Wednesday, will deal with American trade executives at a $2,000-per-plate dinner that shall be an extraordinary alternative for U.S. trade leaders to listen to at once from the Chinese chief as they search rationalization on Beijing’s increasing safety regulations that can choke overseas funding.
Foreign corporations working in China say tensions with Washington over era, business and different issues and uncertainty over Chinese insurance policies are damaging the business environment and inflicting some to re-examine their plans for making an investment within the large marketplace.
A senior Biden management reputable who briefed newshounds forward of the meeting mentioned one large explanation why Xi made up our minds to make the go back and forth to the U.S. used to be to ship the message to American CEOs that China used to be nonetheless a just right position to speculate. The reputable spoke on the situation of anonymity below flooring regulations set through the White House.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer mentioned Tuesday that right through a up to date discuss with to Beijing, he and different lawmakers made the case at once to Xi that he may bolster China’s recognition within the U.S. and around the world through taking motion to forestall the drift of chemical compounds used to provide fentanyl.
“It is reported he’s very worried about the negative opinion of China in the United States,” Schumer mentioned. “And I told him nothing could help raise China’s image a little bit in the United States more than stopping the flow of fentanyl.”
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Associated Press journalist Sagar Meghani in Washington contributed to this file.