PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — President Biden and President Xi Jinping of China will meet on Monday earlier than the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia, an encounter that Mr. Biden and his advisers stated could be centered on setting expectations with the Chinese as tensions proceed to rise over issues such as Taiwan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The assembly, the primary in particular person between the 2 since Mr. Biden took workplace, will likely be held after the president attends a local weather convention in Egypt and makes one other cease in Cambodia this week. In Cambodia, he’ll communicate with leaders of Southeast Asian international locations as half of a bigger effort to shore up relationships that might assist counter China’s affect within the area.
“The leaders will discuss efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication between the United States and the P.R.C., responsibly manage competition and work together where our interests align, especially on transnational challenges that affect the international community,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, stated in a press release, utilizing the acronym for People’s Republic of China.
A senior administration official, who spoke on the situation of anonymity, additionally strengthened the president’s place, delivered throughout a information convention on Wednesday, that he would make no “fundamental concessions” over U.S. assist for Taiwan. China insists that Taiwan is a part of its territory and can’t exist as a sovereign nation.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi are additionally anticipated to debate commerce, human rights and North Korea.
Setting a gathering provides Mr. Biden, a politician who believes within the energy of face-to-face encounters, an opportunity to re-establish boundaries with a pacesetter whom he treats extra as a Cold War-era enemy than a skeptical competitor he as soon as knew. Since the 2 first met, after they had been each vice presidents over a decade in the past, Mr. Xi has tightened his grip on energy domestically and change into extra confrontational as a world adversary, even as he was extra bodily remoted in the course of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Mr. Biden stated throughout a information convention on Wednesday that he needed to attract “red lines” within the working relationship with China, consider the essential pursuits of the United States and “determine whether or not they conflict with one another. And if they do, how to resolve it and how to work it out.”
Expectations are low. The senior White House official on Thursday framed the assembly as “building a floor” in U.S.-China relations, and stated the president could be “honest” about his issues. The two leaders won’t launch a joint assertion after their assembly.
No latest American president has taken a bolder stand on Taiwan than Mr. Biden. He has stated 4 occasions that the U.S. army will defend Taiwan if China assaults it, although different American officers insist that’s not formal policy. The president has continued to ship U.S. naval ships via the Taiwan Strait as China takes army actions there to alter the established order. And his administration has pushed Taiwan to stockpile weapons to change into a “porcupine” in a position to deter an invasion by the People’s Liberation Army.
Mr. Biden’s senior advisers have stated that he has been “direct and honest” in conversations with China in regards to the United States’ curiosity in Taiwan, however Mr. Xi has used extra aggressive language in his warnings. “Those who play with fire will perish by it,” he advised Mr. Biden throughout a marathon call in July, according to the Chinese international ministry.
Since Mr. Biden took workplace, he has spoken with Mr. Xi 5 occasions, emphasizing the time he has spent and the mileage traveled with the Chinese chief, even as his administration has moved to place checks on China’s skill to additional its technological and army ambitions. Those efforts have drawn fiery rebukes from Beijing.
China “is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to advance that objective,” Mr. Biden wrote in a national security strategy document launched final month. A defense strategy released by the Pentagon late final month described China as a rising risk, emphasizing its efforts to bolster its nuclear arsenal.
Still, the Biden administration says it’s hoping that Mr. Xi will likely be receptive to working collectively to cease the connection from additional deteriorating. Mr. Biden and his advisers have urged that the 2 international locations can work collectively on countering North Korea as it will increase missile exams and deploys conflict planes close to the border with South Korea.
