"Biden and Xi Jinping to Hold In-Person Meeting in the US Next Month"

Likely to Hold Talks at APEC Summit Meeting

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are reportedly set to hold a U.S.-China summit on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit scheduled to take place next month in San Francisco, USA. If the meeting takes place, it will be the first face-to-face summit in a year since the G20 summit held in Bali, Indonesia, last November.

The Washington Post (WP) reported on the 5th (local time), citing a senior Biden administration official, that plans for a November summit have begun to stabilize U.S.-China relations. The official said, "The possibility of a meeting is quite high. We have started the procedures related to it." However, another senior official told WP that while President Biden is looking forward to a meeting with President Xi, "nothing has been confirmed yet."

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Agenda items for the summit include semiconductor export controls, the implementation of China’s counter-espionage law, the release of Americans detained in China, and the smuggling of fentanyl drugs from China. The U.S. is expected to announce additional semiconductor export control measures against China ahead of the APEC summit. Earlier, major foreign media outlets cited U.S. government officials saying, "The U.S. will update export controls on semiconductor equipment and artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors either this week or next." Despite the U.S. semiconductor export controls initiated last year, China’s Huawei has succeeded in advanced semiconductor manufacturing, prompting the U.S. to tighten its control network over China further.

If the summit takes place, it will be the first face-to-face meeting since the G20 summit held in Bali, Indonesia, last November. Last month, senior officials from both countries, including Jake Sullivan, U.S. National Security Advisor, and Wang Yi, member of the Chinese Communist Party Central Political Bureau and Foreign Minister, met in Malta. Following a series of contacts between senior officials from both countries, the possibility of a summit on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco next month has been raised.

After the Chinese reconnaissance balloon incident that was shot down over U.S. airspace in February this year, dialogue channels between the two countries, which had been closed, reopened between June and August with visits to China by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. As communication between the two countries resumed and tangled issues began to unravel, speculation has grown within and outside Washington that a U.S.-China summit is likely to be held soon. President Biden also expressed optimism at the G7 summit press conference in Hiroshima, Japan, last May, saying, "A thaw in U.S.-China relations will begin soon."

Daniel Russel, former White House Asia advisor and vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, told WP, "If President Xi does not attend, people will hastily conclude that domestic political and economic issues are too significant," adding, "The cost of not attending is too high," and he expects President Xi to attend the APEC meeting. President Xi attended the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Business Forum held in South Africa in August, delivering a speech that seemed to counter the U.S., but he did not attend this year’s G20 summit held last month in New Delhi.