Biden, China’s Xi expected to meet virtually by year’s end
ZURICH — With tensions rising between the global powers, President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to hold a virtual meeting before year’s end, a senior Biden administration official said Wednesday.
The agreement in principle for the talks was disclosed after White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi met for six hours in Zurich.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the two sides are still working through what the virtual meeting “would look like.”
The official said the idea for the presidential meeting was proposed after Mr. Biden, who spent a substantial amount of time with Mr. Xi when the two were vice presidents, mentioned during their call last month that he would like to be able to see Mr. Xi again.
Details for their meeting are yet to be worked out, according to the U.S. official, who was not authorized to comment publicly on the talks between Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Yang and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Mr. Xi has not left China during the coronavirus pandemic and is not expected to attend in person the upcoming Group of 20 summit in Rome and a U.N. climate conference in Scotland.
A White House statement on the Swiss meeting said Mr. Sullivan stressed to Mr. Yang the need to maintain open lines of communication, while raising concerns about China’s recent military provocations against Taiwan, human rights abuses against ethnic minorities and Beijing’s efforts to squelch pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong.
Mr. Sullivan made clear that while the United States would “continue to invest in our own national strength,” it sought better engagement at a senior level “to ensure responsible competition,” the statement said.
U. S. officials have expressed frustration that interactions with high-level Chinese counterparts, including Mr. Yang, in the early stages of Mr. Biden’s presidency have been less than constructive. But the talks Wednesday were described as respectful, constructive and perhaps the most in-depth between the sides since Mr. Biden took office in January, the administration official said.
The White House said the meeting was intended to serve as a follow-up to last month’s call between Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi in which Mr. Biden stressed the need to set clear parameters in their competition.
Still, the U.S.-China relationship has been under strain, exacerbated recently by the Chinese military’s flying dozens of sorties near the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday reiterated concerns that Beijing was undermining regional peace and stability with its “provocative” action. China sent a record 56 fighter planes toward Taiwan on Monday alone.
“We strongly urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure and coercion directed at Taiwan,” said Mr. Blinken, who was in Paris for talks with French officials.
At the start of Mr. Biden’s presidency, he pledged to press Beijing on its human rights record. His administration has affirmed the U.S. position, first made late in the Trump administration, that China’s repression of Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in its northwest Xinjiang region was “genocide.”
Human rights advocates and Republican lawmakers in the U.S. have raised concerns that the administration might be easing pressure on human rights as it looks for cooperation from Beijing on the global effort on climate change and in thwarting North Korea’s nuclear program.
The White House said last week it did not have a position on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which was passed by the U.S. Senate in July.