© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden disembarks from Air Power One at San Francisco Worldwide Airport, as he arrives to attend the APEC (Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation) Summit in San Francisco, California, U.S., November 14, 2023. REUTERS/Brittany
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By Trevor Hunnicutt
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden meets Chinese language chief Xi Jinping for the primary time in a 12 months on Wednesday for talks which will ease friction between the 2 superpowers over army conflicts, drug-trafficking and synthetic intelligence.
However deep progress on the huge variations separating them might have to attend for an additional day.
Officers on either side of the Pacific have set expectations low as Biden and Xi are set to debate Taiwan, the South China Sea, the Israel-Hamas conflict, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, North Korea and human rights – areas the place the leaders have been unable to resolve long-standing disagreements.
Biden and Xi arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday, the place they had been set to fulfill on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) summit.
Leaders from the 21-country group – and tons of of CEOs in San Francisco to court docket them – meet amid Chinese language financial weak point, Beijing’s territorial feuds with neighbors, and a Center East battle that’s dividing the US from allies.
Efforts to fastidiously choreograph Xi’s go to could also be upended in San Francisco regardless of efforts to drive homeless individuals from the streets. The route from the airport to the convention website was lined with demonstrators for and in opposition to China’s ruling Communist Occasion, an uncommon sight for Xi, who final visited the US in 2017.
Biden has sought direct diplomacy with Xi, betting {that a} private relationship he has cultivated for a dozen years with essentially the most highly effective Chinese language chief since Mao Zedong may salvage ties which can be more and more turning hostile.
Chong Ja Ian, a political science professor on the Nationwide College of Singapore, mentioned the 2 sides are engaged in what Mao referred to through the Chinese language civil conflict as “talk and fight, fight and talk”.
“That is, to talk while building up forces,” Chong mentioned.
Xi and Biden are anticipated to fulfill removed from the convention location at Filoli Property, miles exterior of San Francisco and thoroughly chosen for its safety, serenity and remoteness.
The White Home hopes the assembly may set the stage for additional talks between the world’s largest economies.
“We’re all expecting that this will be a productive discussion today, and hopefully, a precursor to much more communication and dialogue between our two teams going forward,” White Home spokesperson John Kirby (NYSE:) instructed reporters forward of the assembly.
IRAN, ELECTION INTERFERENCE, FENTANYL
In the course of the assembly, Biden is predicted to press Xi to make use of China’s affect to induce Iran to keep away from provocative motion or encouraging its proxies to enter the fray in what, strikes that might unfold the Israel-Hamas battle throughout the Center East.
He’s additionally anticipated to lift alleged Chinese language operations to affect international elections, the standing of U.S. residents that Washington believes are wrongly detained in China and human rights, together with what Washington says is an ongoing genocide in opposition to Uyghurs and different ethnic minorities in China’s Xinjiang area.
“I think you can fully expect that the president will raise our concerns over human rights in China to include the issue of the Uyghurs,” Kirby mentioned.
U.S. officers anticipated concrete steps to revive staff-level conversations between the 2 international locations on points from military-to-military communications to decreasing the movement of fentanyl, managing the expansion of synthetic intelligence applied sciences, and managing commerce and local weather.
Lots of the chemical substances used to make fentanyl come from China, U.S. officers say.
Earlier than the assembly, each international locations backed a brand new renewable power goal and mentioned they’d work to scale back methane and plastic air pollution, a renewal of local weather cooperate suspended after former U.S. Speaker of the Home Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in 2022.
Biden, 80, presides over an financial system that has outperformed expectations and most wealthy nations after the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s looking for a second time period in workplace.
He has corralled the nation’s conventional allies from Europe to Asia to confront Russia in Ukraine, though some have variations over the Israel-Hamas battle.
Xi, a decade Biden’s junior, has tightened management over coverage, state leaders, the media and army and altering the structure. However financial challenges have thrown the nation off its three-decade development trajectory.
Authorities officers throughout the area count on Beijing to check Washington in coming weeks, benefiting from the US’ perceived shift in concentrate on Ukraine and Israel because it pursues its personal ambitions within the Indo-Pacific.
Biden is predicted to inform Xi that U.S. commitments within the Indo-Pacific are unchanged. China has anxious its neighbors in recent times with steps within the Taiwan Strait, South China Sea and East China Sea, areas of worldwide dispute.
