President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet face-to-face on Nov. 15 in San Francisco, California, as tensions between the two countries continue to rise, the White House announced Friday.
The two world leaders last met in Nov. 2022 during a Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, where Biden and Xi discussed how to improve relations between China and the U.S. The White House says Biden and Xi will talk about “maintaining open lines of communication” between the two countries as well as a “range of regional and global issues.” (RELATED: ‘That Is Crap’: Biden, Xi Had Heated Argument Over Alleged Biolabs In Ukraine, Book Says)
“We’re clear-eyed about this,” a U.S. official told CBS News. “We know efforts to shape or reform China over several decades have failed, but we expect China to be around and to be a major player on the world stage for the rest of our lifetimes.”
The meeting is a positive sign, White House aides told CNN, amid high tensions between the United States and China. During the meeting, Biden and Xi are aiming to develop a “framework” between the two competitive countries while also “clearing up misperceptions,” U.S. officials told CNN.
Russian nesting dolls of U.S President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are seen at a souvenir stand on February 04, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. International fears of an imminent Russian military invasion of Ukraine continue to remain high as Russian troops mass along the Russian-Ukrainian border and weeks of diplomatic talks continue to stall. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Notably, Xi was not in attendance at the United Nations General Assembly in September. Several other prominent world leaders from France, Russia, the United Kingdom and India also skipped the meeting and Biden’s speech.
During Biden’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly, the president promised he did not want to contain China or any other countries. Biden instead discussed how he is focused on “de-risking not decoupling” with the country and emphasized that he wants to “responsibly manage competition” with China.
Throughout the summer months, several Biden officials visited China as tensions continued to escalate; Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Central Foreign Affairs Office Director Wang Yi and Foreign Minister Qin Gang during a trip to in Beijing in June, an attempt to push for military-to-military direct communication in crises. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo took a visit to China in August to meet with Chinese Minister of Culture and Tourism Hu Heping to discuss how mutual tourism can be increased.
“This is not the relationship of five or 10 years ago — we’re not talking about a long list of outcomes or deliverables. The goals here really are about managing the competition, preventing the downside of risk of conflict and ensuring channels of communication are open,” another U.S. official told CBS News about the meeting between Biden and Xi.