Xi-Biden meeting at the G20
What’s the background?
Chinese President Xi Jinping met with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia. This is the first time the two leaders have met in person since Joe Biden took up office in 2020.
Fact 1
The two leaders engaged in a three-hour-long talk, which covered a wide range of topics including the Taiwan issue, the war in Ukraine, US-China competition, bilateral cooperation in areas of climate change, food security, and public health, and the importance of people-to-people exchanges.
Fact 2
The US-China dialogue on climate, that was previously halted following the US house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit, will now resume. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will also visit China to follow up on the two leaders’ discussions.
Fact 3
During the meeting, President Xi repeatedly emphasised the differences in China and the US’ social realities and development paths and therefore the need for the two nations to coexist and manage their differences.
BritCham comment:
The in-person meeting between the leaders of the two world’s largest economies has been long-awaited. The warm handshakes and greetings on display between President Xi and President Biden on Monday, and the consensus on managing their differences and keeping communication lines open, are reassuring signs that the two leaders are interested in improving the souring US-China relationship. As President Xi remarked at the beginning of the discussion, the rest of the world looks to the two leaders to set the direction for the bilateral relationship which subsequently has profound implications for the whole world. Whilst it is clear that the meeting did not comprehensively address the fundamental differences between the two nations, and we can therefore continue to expect flare ups in areas where there is disagreement, it does appear to have at least reinstated some guardrails in a relationship that has become increasingly adversarial.
– Sally Xu, Policy Analyst
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