The Biden-Xi meeting in San Francisco remains on track but no major breakthroughs are expected

Washington (AFP) – The upcoming meeting between President Joe Biden And the Chinese leader Xi Jinping On track for next week on the sidelines Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit In San Francisco, but the White House does not expect the face-to-face meeting to lead to major changes in the relationship between the two countries, according to a person familiar with the planning.

The White House announced late last month that the United States and China had reached an agreement in principle that Biden and Xi would speak to each other in person on the sidelines of the summit — the first engagement between the two leaders in a tense year. Between the two largest economic powers in the world. But with Biden due to arrive in San Francisco within a week for the summit, the exact timing and other logistical details have not been officially announced.

The United States believes the two sides will be able to make some modest announcements after their meeting, but fundamental differences in the relationship will remain unchanged, according to the person who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Biden and Xi are looking to “deliberately keep this low,” said Jude Blanchett, head of China studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“What is going on here is an attempt to have a deep conversation where the two sides share their concerns directly, but more importantly, the meeting opens up, especially in the Chinese system, a space for more engagement in constructive work,” Blanchett said.

Both sides have made a lot of efforts to lay the foundation for the expected San Francisco meeting.

US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen He was appointed to meet On Thursday and Friday, he will meet with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in San Francisco before the finance ministers of APEC member states officially begin the summit on Saturday.

The meeting between senior government officials comes next Biden spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi At the White House for about an hour late last month, when China’s top diplomat came to Washington for talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Xi similarly met with Blinken in June when the foreign minister traveled to Beijing for talks with Wang.

Yellen last met with her counterpart Hu during a visit to Beijing in July, and urged Chinese government officials to do so. Cooperation on climate change and other global challenges Do not allow sharp disagreements over trade and other irritants to derail relations.

Biden and Xi last met nearly a year ago on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, a meeting that lasted about three hours during which… Biden I objected directly to China “Increasingly coercive and aggressive measures” Towards Taiwan and discussed the Russian invasion of Ukraine and other issues.

The already fraught relationship has become more complex since the Bali meeting. Disagreements have intensified as a result of export controls imposed by the United States on advanced technology; Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon after it crossed the continental US; Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen stopped in the United States earlier this year, among other issues.

Beijing sees official US contact with Taiwan as an encouragement to make permanent the island’s decades-long de facto independence, a move US leaders say they do not support. Under the “One China” policy, the United States recognizes Beijing as the government of China and does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but has stressed that Taipei is an important partner in the Indo-Pacific region.