Chinese language President Xi Jinping referred to as the US-China relationship ‘an important bilateral relationship on the planet.’
US President Joe Biden has met Chinese language President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of an financial summit in California, the place they shook arms and spoke about methods to enhance bruised relations.
The assembly came about on Wednesday throughout a convention for the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperative (APEC), and comes amid a interval of mounting pressure between Washington and Beijing.
Biden mentioned that the 2 international locations ought to attempt to verify they don’t “veer into battle” and handle their relationship “responsibly”.
Xi referred to as the US-China relationship “an important bilateral relationship on the planet”, and mentioned he and Biden “shoulder heavy tasks for the 2 peoples, for the world, and for historical past”.
“For 2 giant international locations like China and the US, turning their again on one another isn’t an possibility,” he mentioned. “It’s unrealistic for one aspect to transform the opposite, and battle and confrontation has insufferable penalties for each side.”
Officers on each side of the Pacific have set expectations low as Biden and Xi are set to debate Taiwan, the South China Sea, the Israel-Hamas struggle, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, North Korea and human rights – areas the place the leaders have been unable to resolve long-standing disagreements.
Cooperation between the US and China, which make up the primary and second-largest economies on the planet, respectively, stays important for progress on international points resembling local weather change. However each side have expressed mounting frustration with the opposite, disagreeing over points resembling expertise and international politics.
Washington has accused China of providing Russia an financial lifeline as Moscow carries out a bloody invasion of Ukraine, which the US has backed with navy help and humanitarian help.
The 2 sides have additionally differed on points within the Center East, the place China has referred to as for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian armed group HaInsidemas. The US has used its place on the United Nations Safety Council to veto requires a ceasefire and has thrown its assist behind Israel.
The 2 have additionally clashed over expertise and commerce, with the US instituting new measures in an effort to hobble China’s microchip trade.
Iran, fentanyl
In the course of the assembly, Biden is anticipated to press Xi to make use of China’s affect to induce Iran to keep away from provocative motion or encouraging its proxies to enter the fray in strikes that might unfold the Israel-Hamas battle throughout the Center East.
He’s additionally anticipated to boost alleged Chinese language operations to affect overseas elections, the standing of US residents that Washington believes are wrongly detained in China and human rights.
US officers anticipated concrete steps to revive staff-level conversations between the 2 international locations on points from military-to-military communications to decreasing the stream of fentanyl, managing the expansion of synthetic intelligence applied sciences, and managing commerce and local weather.
Most of the chemical substances used to make the opioid drug fentanyl come from China, US officers say.
Earlier than the assembly, each international locations backed a brand new renewable power goal and mentioned they’d work to cut back methane and plastic air pollution, a renewal of local weather cooperation that was suspended after former US Speaker of the Home Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in 2022.
