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Joe Biden and Xi Jinping are holding a high-profile summit in San Francisco in a renewed try to stabilise US-China relations after a number of years of rising tensions and mounting concern a couple of attainable battle over Taiwan.
The US administration performed down expectations forward of the Wednesday assembly, saying it was centered on managing dangers of additional deterioration in the connection and stopping battle quite than producing splashy outcomes.
“We have to ensure that competition does not lead to conflict,” Biden informed Xi because the assembly started, including that the nations may work collectively on points starting from synthetic intelligence to the local weather.
Xi informed Biden that the world had emerged from the worldwide pandemic however was nonetheless underneath its “tremendous impacts”. The international economic system was recovering, however its momentum remained “sluggish”, he stated, including that industrial provide chains had been underneath the specter of interruption and protectionism was rising.
“All these are grave problems,” the Chinese president stated, however the two nations ought to be “fully capable of rising above differences”.
“Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed,” Xi stated.
It is Biden and Xi’s second in-person assembly because the US president took workplace in 2021, and will final 4 hours. They met on the Filoli property south of San Francisco and had lunch earlier than attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation discussion board with different world leaders in the town.
Biden and Xi held their first summit a yr in the past on the sidelines of the G20 in Bali, Indonesia, the place they agreed on the necessity to make sure that intense competition between the US and China “did not veer into conflict”. But efforts to create a “floor” underneath the connection had been derailed when a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over North America in February.
The presidents had been anticipated to talk about a spread of points, together with US considerations about China’s army exercise round Taiwan and its quickly increasing nuclear arsenal. Chinese officers stated Xi’s precedence was Taiwan, however he would most likely deliver up Biden’s efforts to prohibit China’s entry to the superior chips wanted for synthetic intelligence functions.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby stated Biden would increase considerations about Chinese human rights abuses, together with its therapy of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, in his talks with Xi.
“We absolutely believe that the situation needs to be remedied and these people need to be afforded civil and human rights,” Kirby stated. “There’ll be no slackening of our desire to see the situation changed.”
Instead of eating with Biden on Wednesday night Xi will attend a dinner in San Francisco with American enterprise leaders, as a part of the Chinese effort to scale back concern in the US about investing in the nation.
The leaders are anticipated to attain some modest agreements in San Francisco, together with reopening military communication channels that China shut after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022.
China has additionally agreed to crack down on the move to Mexican cartels of chemical compounds used to make fentanyl, a lethal artificial opioid.
One senior US official stated the Biden group had “realistic expectations” about attainable agreements however added that it was essential to meet to handle the connection responsibly, partly to reassure American allies.
Over the previous few months, a number of US cupboard secretaries have visited Beijing, partly in recognition that Washington wanted to increase high-level engagement to scale back miscommunication and correctly clarify insurance policies that every aspect doesn’t like.
“Allies and partners are probably a bit relieved that the US is able to have those bilateral channels of communication and talk directly with China about difficult aspects of the relationship, whether that is related to specific irritants such as technology controls or overarching issues such as Taiwan and regional stability,” stated Emily Kilcrease, an professional on the Center for a New American Security think-tank in Washington.
Over the previous three years, US allies have develop into more and more alarmed about the opportunity of battle over Taiwan because the Chinese army turns into extra assertive across the island and Washington does extra to help Taipei defend itself amid mounting financial and army strain from Beijing.
The US and its allies are additionally fearful in regards to the accelerating tempo of dangerous manoeuvres by Chinese fighter jets in proximity to their spy planes. China has responded by accusing the US of flying too shut to its coast — a criticism Washington dismisses as a result of the planes are flying in worldwide airspace.
Concerns about attainable battle over Taiwan have eased in current months, notably after the Pentagon warned prime officers to cease issuing public predictions about when China may assault Taiwan. In a go to to Tokyo final week, General Charles Brown, the brand new chairman of the joint chiefs of workers, said he believed Xi did not want to use force in opposition to Taiwan if avoidable.
But US allies have been eager to see the summit proceed to make sure the powers are participating at prime ranges and have mechanisms to take care of crises. China solely just lately confirmed that Xi would attend. It needed assurances the US wouldn’t do something that will embarrass Xi throughout his go to.
Xi had not visited the US since April 2017 when he met then-president Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida. As the leaders dined that night, Trump knowledgeable Xi that the US had simply struck Syria with dozens of cruise missiles.
