Victor Ezeja
AdminThe United States president, Joe Biden, has asserted that China has “got real problems,” pointing at President Xi as “another example of how reestablishing American leadership in the world is taking hold.”
He stated this at a fundraising event late Tuesday in San Francisco hours ahead of his much-anticipated talks with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. Biden had characterized the meeting as a chance for Washington and Beijing to right ties that have floundered in recent years.
Both leaders will huddle on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco for their first encounter in a year as trade tensions, sanctions and the question of Taiwan have fueled quarrels between Washington and Beijing.
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Before heading to San Francisco, the president told reporters at the White House that the US is “not trying to decouple from China. What we’re trying to do is change the relationship for the better.”
Asked what he hoped to achieve at the meeting, he said he wanted “to get back on a normal course of corresponding; being able to pick up the phone and talk to one another if there’s a crisis; being able to make sure our (militaries) still have contact with one another.”
The US president however pointed out that America was wary of investing in China due to Beijing’s business practices: “I’m not going to continue to sustain the support for positions where if we want to invest in China, we have to turn over all our trade secrets”.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry when asked about Beijing’s expectations for the summit was vague, mentioning “in-depth communication” and “major issues concerning world peace.”
China usually warns it will not budge on issues it considers “red lines,” such as Taiwan, a self-ruling island off its coast that Beijing claims as its own territory, and its expansion into the South China Sea.
But the world’s two largest economies have recently made some progress on trade and economic relations as well as climate change talks.
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