Xi-Biden meeting shapes up for November
It’s (almost) official: Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden will meet at the APEC Summit in November.
- That’s according to an anonymous US official who said that top diplomat Wang Yi’s meetings with US Secretary Antony Blinken and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan produced an “agreement in principle” to a Xi-Biden meeting.
- China has not yet officially confirmed Xi’s attendance at APEC.
Some context: In recent weeks, a series of high-level talks between US and Chinese officials have raised hopes of a thaw in bilateral relations.
Wang stressed the importance of mending US-China ties in a meeting with Biden on Friday (MoFA):
- “The two sides should work to stabilize the China-U.S. relationship.”
Biden quite agreed (White House):
- “Both the United States and China need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly.”
Get smart: An in-person meeting is the best hope for the two big kahunas to hash out key issues and stabilize US-China relations in the short term.
Get smarter: "Stabilize" is the operative word here.
- The best outcome from a November meeting is to prevent relations from deteriorating further.
- A true reset will take much more time and trust-building.
Debbie Downer says: There are still many, many disagreements that could derail the fragile progress we’ve seen so far.
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