President Joe Biden hopes to reopen lines of communication with China, using his administration’s first in-person meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss “guardrails” that could reduce the possibility of conflict between the two superpowers.
Hours before Biden sits down with Xi on the sidelines of the G-20 leaders summit in Bali, Indonesia, senior administration officials acknowledged the “stiff competition” between the United States and China, which they said Biden embraces. But one official underscored Biden’s guardrails priority so “we have clear rules of the road and that we do all of that to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict.”
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“There is broad support for our determination to build a floor under the relationship, to increase communication responsibly and practically,” a second senior administration official told reporters on Monday. “And so we arrived here in Bali, I think, well prepared for what we think will be a useful engagement between the two leaders.”
Biden and Xi last met during the 2017 annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, though they have spoken five times over the phone or through virtual calls since Biden became president. Monday’s conversation will not result in a joint statement.
“It comes at this moment following a lot of different developments, but also, of course, the developments we saw in August across the Taiwan Strait with Beijing’s very provocative military exercises,” the first official added. “So there will be no shortage of issues for the two leaders to discuss in specifics.”
Among those topics will likely be Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on economic, energy, and technology policy.
“But on some of these big issues, I think there is undeniably some discomfort in Beijing about what we’ve seen in terms of reckless rhetoric and activity on the part of Russia,” the second official said. “It is also undeniable that China is probably both surprised and even a little bit embarrassed by the conduct of Russia’s military operation.”
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The senior administration officials described Biden’s outreach to Asian counterparts, particularly those in Southeast Asia, as “almost unprecedented.” Like national security adviser Jake Sullivan, they, too, remarked on comments from leaders with Biden at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and East Asia summits this week in Cambodia about last week’s midterm elections and “the general acceptance of the expression of democracy.”
“A lot of work together on climate,” one official went on of the Cambodia aspect of Biden’s trip. “We announced the major partnership on electric vehicles. We are essentially stepping up our engagement diplomatically, militarily, and across just a host of issues that really define Southeast Asia.”
