President Biden will convene a virtual meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday, the White House said, a conversation that will take place amid pledges of cooperation on climate but persistent tensions over Taiwan, trade, human rights and other issues.
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In a statement Friday announcing the meeting, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden and Xi will discuss how to “responsibly manage the competition” between the two nations, as well as avenues “to work together where our interests align.”
“Throughout, President Biden will make clear U.S. intentions and priorities and be clear and candid about our concerns with” China, Psaki said. The meeting will be held in the evening, and a joint statement is not expected after it concludes.
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Xi has not left China since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and he was absent from a pair of recent high-profile global summits in Italy and Scotland. His nonappearance at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow was especially notable because China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
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China this week cleared a resolution that would allow Xi to stay in power until at least 2027, underlining his formidable role as a powerful leader of the increasingly influential country.
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In a news conference at the climate summit, Biden said it was a “big mistake” that China did not attend, adding that the United States, by coming to the summit, left a “profound impact” on the international perception of its leadership role on climate.
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“The rest of the world is going to look to China and say, ‘What value added are they providing?’” Biden said during the news conference closing out his appearance in Glasgow. “They’ve lost an ability to influence people around the world and all the people here at COP.”
Still, the U.S. and China surprised the globe this week with a joint announcement on climate, saying they would collaborate on efforts to slow global warming by boosting clean energy initiatives, combating deforestation and curbing methane emissions.
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One of Biden’s top foreign policy goals has been to shift the focus of the United States and its allies toward countering China, rather than issues like Middle East terrorism, which the administration sees as a diminished threat.
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In the first 10 months of his presidency, his administration has repeatedly emphasized that the relationship between the United States and China is one of competition but not conflict. At the same time, U.S. officials have made clear that “we believe intense competition requires intense diplomacy,” a senior administration official said Friday.
Biden has spent about five or six hours on the phone with Xi since he took office, the U.S. president has said, and stressed that while there is “no reason there needs to be conflict,” he expects Xi to “play by the rules of the road.”
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“We’re not going to change our attitude toward what constitutes international airspace, international sea lanes, etcetera,” Biden said during the Glasgow news conference.
The senior administration official said on Friday that the virtual summit is not expected to produce specific outcomes, but rather will set the “terms of an effective competition where we are in the position to defend our values and interests and those of our allies and partners.”