• U.S., China agree to work toward an expected Biden-Xi summit
• Biden meets top Chinese diplomat as rivals seek to manage tensions

U.S., China agree to work toward an expected Biden-Xi summit

https://reuters.com/article/usa-china/u-s-china-agree-to-work-toward-an-expected-biden-xi-summit-idUSKBN31R1C3

The United States and China have agreed to work together toward an expected summit between presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping next month, U.S. officials said on Friday, following hours of meetings between Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and senior U.S. diplomats in Washington.

In the first visit by a Chinese Foreign Minister to Washington since 2018, veteran diplomat Wang Yi also met Biden for an hour, talks that the White House described as a "good opportunity" in keeping lines of communication open between the two geopolitical rivals which have deep policy differences.

Wang's meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan spanning over two days totaled nine hours, U.S. officials said, describing these interactions as "candid and in-depth".

Biden's top aides raised Washington's key concerns: the need to restore military-to-military channels between the two countries, Beijing's actions in the East and South China Sea, Taiwan, human rights, the flow of fentanyl precursors and the cases of Americans detained in China, U.S. officials said.

There were also "frank exchanges" between Blinken and Wang over the erupting conflict in the Middle East.

The key area that appeared to show some positive momentum was toward an expected meeting between Biden and Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next month in San Francisco.

"We are making preparations for such a meeting," a senior administration officials, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity, said. "Obviously, Chinese leaders often confirm publicly much closer to a trip, so I will leave it to the Chinese side to figure out if and when they make that announcement," the official said.

The Biden administration has seen direct leader-level engagement with Xi as particularly important in managing tensions as it sought to prevent relations, also severely strained by intense economic competition and disagreements on a host of issues, from veering into conflict.

"A big part of a potential meeting would be the two leaders sitting down together and having those conversations on strategic intent," the official said.

On Thursday, Wang told Blinken that the two countries have disagreements and need "in-depth" and "comprehensive" dialogue to reduce misunderstandings and stabilize ties. "Not only should we resume dialogue, the dialogue should be in-depth and comprehensive," Wang said.

Wang's three-day visit follows a flurry of bilateral diplomatic engagements in recent months, largely at U.S. request, aimed at salvaging what were rapidly deteriorating ties early in the year following the U.S. downing of an alleged Chinese spy balloon.

But some in Washington have questioned whether a slate of mostly unreciprocated U.S. Cabinet-level official visits to Beijing over the past six months, including by Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, played into Beijing's hand.

The trips by Yellen and Raimondo led to new bilateral economic and commercial working groups, which critics worry will only pull U.S. focus away from - and possibly delay - sanctions, export controls and broader measures intended to enhance U.S. competition with China.

U.S. officials have maintained that increased diplomacy does not mean a let up in policy.

The Israel-Hamas conflict has added a fresh dynamic to the testy relationship between the superpowers, and Washington is hoping Beijing can use its influence with Iran to prevent an escalation into a wider war in the Middle East.

U.S. officials said the issue came up frequently during Wang's meetings but it was unclear whether Washington was able to get Beijing on board to commit to using its influence in the Middle East, particularly with Iran, to help contain the conflict.

"We expressed our deep concern with the situation and pressed China to take a more constructive approach, and that would include, of course, their engagements with the Iranians, to urge calm," one of the senior administration officials said.

China has condemned violence and attacks on civilians in the conflict, and while Wang has declared Israel's actions "beyond the scope of self-defence" he has not named Hamas in his comments.

The second senior administration official said Blinken raised U.S. concerns about China’s recent actions in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, including its “dangerous and unlawful obstruction” of the Philippine resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea and its unsafe intercept of a U.S. aircraft.

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Biden meets top Chinese diplomat as rivals seek to manage tensions

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/10/27/biden-china-wang-yi-washington-visit/2023-10-27T14:57:24.503Z

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi capped two days in Washington on Friday with an hour-long visit with President Biden at the White House, part of an ongoing effort to thaw relations between the two superpowers after a year of anger and distrust from both sides.

In meetings, U.S. policymakers ticked down the list of frustrations the Biden administration has with Beijing, ranging from China’s role in the global fentanyl trade to its claims over the South China Sea. But they also appealed to the top Chinese diplomat to use his country’s influence over Russian behavior in Ukraine and now its potential sway over Iran in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

The two sides emerged without having made breakthroughs, U.S. officials said, and the glimpses of interactions that they made public appeared frosty. But Wang’s visit was itself a positive marker for a relationship that U.S. officials say they have to manage carefully to address irritants between the two nations. Wang’s trip was the highest-level visit to Washington since then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sparked Chinese anger with a visit to Taiwan in August 2022 and since a Chinese spy balloon floated across the United States at the beginning of this year.

“The United States and China are in an intense competition, and we believe the best way to manage that competition is through equally intense diplomacy,” White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday. “President Biden has stated multiple times that he hopes to see [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping] in the near future.”

Wang and Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid the ground for a possible visit by Xi to San Francisco next month, where leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group will convene for several days of talks. If Xi attends, as is expected, it would be the first visit by Xi to the United States since 2017, and one of only a handful of direct interactions between the two leaders since Biden came to office. The two have not spoken since they met on the sidelines of a gathering in Bali, Indonesia, in November.

While China has supported Russia following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, Beijing has not thrown the full weight of its defense industry in favor of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a policy that U.S. officials hope to preserve. China also may have some influence over Iran’s decisions about whether to join fully in the Israel-Gaza conflict, a move that could pull U.S. military forces into a regional war that the Biden administration is eager to avoid.

China has extensive economic ties in the Middle East, and as Blinken crisscrossed the region earlier this month, he called Wang to encourage Beijing to help manage the conflict.

Wang’s visit was a reciprocal exchange following a June visit by Blinken to Beijing. U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic efforts, said that the Washington visit was choreographed nearly to the minute to reproduce what happened in China. That trip unlocked several visits by U.S. cabinet officials, a resumption of direct ties following a hiatus that diplomats said was a hindrance to basic risk management between the rivals.

The tensions were on display as recently as this week, when a Chinese fighter jet flew within 10 feet of a U.S. B-52 bomber flying in international airspace over the Pacific, U.S. military officials said Thursday. They said it risked causing a midair collision.

Over the two days of meetings in Washington, the sides did little to promote a sense of camaraderie, with the Americans in particular appearing careful to avoid any flicker of a smile that could be freeze-framed and turned into an attack ad by Republicans accusing the Biden administration of being soft on China during the upcoming presidential campaign.

On Thursday, as Blinken welcomed Wang to the State Department for a two-hour conversation to be followed by dinner, his quick remarks to the press were so short — 30 words in all, at a moment that diplomats typically use to outline their aims for a meeting — that he took his Chinese counterpart by surprise.

“So brief, huh?” Wang asked.

Friday morning, the sides convened again at the State Department, allowing reporters in briefly for photos — no talking — in which both the American and Chinese delegations appeared to have received memos to be staunch, resolute, and grim-faced.

Standing next to Blinken a day earlier, Wang said that “in China-U.S. relations, from time to time there will be some jarring voices. When it happens, China treats it calmly, because we are of the view what is right and what is wrong is not determined by who has the stronger arm or a louder voice.”