President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet on Wednesday in California for talks on trade, Taiwan and managing fraught US-Chinese relations in the first engagement between the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies in nearly a year.
The White House has said for weeks that it anticipated Mr Biden and Mr Xi would meet on the side-lines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in San Francisco, but negotiations went down to the eve of the gathering, which starts on Saturday.
The officials, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said on Friday that the leaders would meet in the San Francisco Bay area but declined to offer further details because of security concerns.
Thousands of protesters are expected to descend on San Francisco during the summit.
The meeting is not expected to lead to many, if any, major announcements, and differences between the two powers certainly will not be resolved.
Instead, one official said, Mr Biden is looking toward “managing the competition, preventing the downside risk of conflict and ensuring channels of communication are open”.
The agenda includes no shortage of difficult issues.
Differences in the already complicated US-Chinese relationship have only sharpened in the last year, with Beijing bristling over new US export controls on advanced technology; Mr Biden ordering the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon after it traversed the continental United States; and Chinese anger over a stopover in the US by Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen earlier this year, among other issues. China claims the island as its territory.
Mr Biden will also likely press Mr Xi on using China’s influence on North Korea, during heightened anxiety over an increased pace of ballistic missile tests by North Korea as well as Pyongyang providing munitions to Russia for its war in Ukraine.
The Democratic president is also expected to let Mr Xi know that he would like China to use its burgeoning sway over Iran to make clear that Tehran or its proxies should not take action that could lead to expansion of the Israel-Hamas war.
His administration believes the Chinese, a big buyer of Iranian oil, have considerable leverage with Iran, which is a major backer of Hamas.
Mr Biden and Mr Xi last met nearly a year ago on the side-lines of the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.
Next week’s meeting comes as the United States braces for a potentially bumpy year for US-Chinese relations, with Taiwan set to hold a presidential election in January and the US holding its own presidential election next November.
