Xi Jinping heads to US for 'meeting of great importance' with Joe Biden

Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping left for the US on Tuesday for a "meeting of great importance" with his American counterpart Joe Biden on Wednesday, amidst frosty ties between the two largest global economies.

The Biden-Xi bilateral will take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which the US is hosting in San Francisco from November 11 to 17. It will be their second face-to-face meeting in a year. Biden and Xi last held an in-person meeting on the margins of the G20 Summit on November 14 in Bali, Indonesia.

China said Xi and Biden will have in-depth communication on issues of strategic, overarching, and fundamental importance in shaping China-US relations and major issues concerning world peace and development.

“It will be a meeting of great importance,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a media briefing here on Tuesday.

Xi, who is heading a large delegation, will also attend the China-US summit and the 30th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in the United States.

The summit is taking place after lengthy preparations by both sides including between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

China views and handles its relations with the US in accordance with the three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, Mao said.

“Major-country competition runs counter to the trend of our times and provides no answer to the problems in the US or the challenges in our world. China does not fear competition, but we do not agree that China-US relations should be defined by competition,” she said.

The spokesperson said the US needs to respect China's concerns and legitimate right to development, rather than emphasising its own concerns at the expense of China’s interests.

“To seek to remodel other countries in one’s own image is wishful thinking in the first place and typical hegemonism which is going nowhere. China doesn’t seek to change the US, nor should the US seek to shape or change China,” she said.

Mao said Beijing hoped the US would act on its commitment of not seeking a new Cold War with China and having no intention to seek a conflict with China and work with China to bring bilateral relations back on track for sound and stable development.

On the US' stand on the Taiwan issue, the foreign ministry spokesperson said, "The Taiwan question is China’s internal affair and resolving it is a matter for the Chinese that brook no foreign interference.” The US needs to honour its commitment to 'one-China' policy and oppose “Taiwan independence” with concrete actions.

Ties between China and the US deteriorated earlier this year after Washington accused Beijing of sending a spy balloon across its air space. An American warplane shot the balloon down off the coast of South Carolina.

The summit between Xi and Biden is taking place amid the continued slowdown of the Chinese economy and declining FDI (foreign direct investment) inflows, heightening Beijing's worries over the shifting of supply chains, a potential long-term impact that remains a significant worry for Xi in his unprecedented third term in power, observers opine.

US officials say the Xi-Biden summit will be a wide-ranging one that includes the Israel-Hamas war, China’s aggressive actions to take over Taiwan, the war in Ukraine and allegations of election interference.

The China-US ties are not the relationship of five or 10 years ago. “We're not talking about a long list of outcomes or deliverables," a US official told the BBC.

"The goals here really are about managing the competition, preventing the downside of risk - of conflict, and ensuring channels of communication are open," the official said.

Observers say Washington apprehends that China may resort to military action to take control of Taiwan which it claims as part of its mainland, taking advantage of the Hamas-Israel and the Ukraine-Russia war which stretched the resources of the US and its allies.

Meanwhile, according to several media reports, Xi will attend a private dinner with US business executives in San Francisco after his meeting with Biden.

For USD 40,000, guests can sit at the Chinese president's table. Tickets start at USD 2,000 per person, the reports said.