President Joe Biden met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping Sunday, in what is likely their last in-person interaction during Biden’s presidency.
The two leaders exchanged handshakes and greetings before the meeting, which took place at the hotel at which the Chinese leader is staying. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima, Peru.
During his opening remarks, Xi told Biden, “The United States has recently concluded its elections. China’s goal of a stable, healthy and sustainable China–U.S. relationship remains unchanged.”
“China is ready to work with the new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences, so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-US relationship for the benefit of the two peoples.”
The White House said the leaders were expected to cover a range of issues in U.S.–China relations, including avoiding armed conflict and maintaining the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and broader Indo-Pacific region, joint efforts to stop illicit narcotics flowing from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) into the United States, and resolving trade disputes.
Biden and Xi were also expected to touch on China’s relationship with North Korea, particularly as U.S. and Western intelligence assessments indicate North Korea has deployed troops to assist Russian forces in their ongoing war with Ukraine.
Trump’s Return
President-elect Donald Trump’s impending return to the White House also looms large over Biden and Xi’s upcoming meeting.Trump has repeatedly signaled he will employ tariffs of up to 60 percent on Chinese products arriving in the United States.
Trump also appears set to staff his incoming administration with several China hawks. He has already named Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.)—two staunch China critics—as his picks for secretary of state and national security adviser, respectively.
While Trump’s first term saw escalating trade wars with China, relations have remained rocky under Biden.
“If you look out at a strategic level, the competition with the People’s Republic of China is going to be defining for what the world looks like over the course of the next 10, 20, and 30 years, and so that has got to be a paramount priority for the incoming administration,” Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan said, at a press briefing this week.
“And the person who’s been named as my successor, the person who’s been floated as the secretary of state, these are people who have very much focused on that challenge,” Sullivan said.
Still, Sullivan has said the upcoming Biden–Xi meeting offers an opportunity to “mark the progress that we’ve made” in U.S.–China relations.
Biden’s China Record
During his presidency, Biden revived a U.S.–China military-to-military communications, to aid in avoiding escalatory confrontations.The two leaders last met on the margins of the APEC leaders’ summit in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2023.
In a solo press conference following last year’s meeting, Biden signaled progress on military-to-military communications and joint counternarcotics efforts, and on establishing a shared understanding of the risks associated with emerging artificial intelligence technology. Biden said he also raised concerns, during his last meeting with Xi, about U.S. citizens being detained in China, the regime’s human rights record, and the regime’s expansionist activities in the South China Sea.
One of the most attention-grabbing moments of Biden’s press conference last year came when he made an off-the-cuff remark, calling Xi a “dictator.”
“Well, look, he is,” Biden said when asked whether he would still refer to Xi as a dictator.
“I mean, he’s a dictator in the sense that he—he is a guy who runs a country that—it’s a communist country that is based on a form of government totally different than ours.”
Beijing denounced Biden’s comments the following day.
