Chinese President Xi begins visit to the US
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in San Francisco today for a four-day visit to the US.
Xi is visiting the US to attend the APEC Summit. On Wednesday, he is expected to meet with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the summit. It will be their first meeting in a year.
The long-anticipated meeting will likely last for several hours and cover a wide range of contentious topics, including issues related to Taiwan, Russia, North Korea, the South China Sea, and the wars in Ukraine and Israel, as well as ongoing trade disputes and US sanctions on semiconductors.
The two leaders are unlikely to resolve most of their issues and instead hope for some concessions from each other. Given China’s underperforming economy, Xi will likely focus on improving trade relations and lowering US sanctions on key technologies. Biden, on the other hand, will likely be most concerned about lowering military tensions and reducing Beijing’s interference internationally and domestically, including for next year’s US presidential elections.
Both sides will likely agree to additional meetings in the near term to gradually improve relations. However, due to the massive ideological rift that divides Washington and Beijing, relations are unlikely to improve much in the long run. Highly contentious issues, such as those related to Taiwan and the South China Sea, are unlikely to be resolved. Instead, Xi and Biden will probably announce additional military de-escalation mechanisms, such as expanding on military hotlines to reduce the potential for inadvertent escalation.
