LIMA, Peru — President Biden will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Lima, Peru, a senior U.S. administration official told reporters on Wednesday.
This is the third meeting between the two leaders during Biden’s term in office, and likely to be the final one. Their last meeting was about a year ago in Woodside, Calif.
The official said there is “not a long list of outcomes or deliverables” expected from this final conversation.
Biden is expected to use the meeting to “take stock of efforts to responsibly manage competition” between the two countries, the official said, including the resumption of military-to-military talks over the past year, and joint efforts to curb illicit fentanyl trade, deal with the risks of AI, and climate issues.
Biden is expected to express concern over China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, as well as warn China against cyber attacks on U.S. networks, and express concern about Chinese trade practices.
The official declined comment on whether Biden planned to talk to President-elect Donald Trump during his Oval Office meeting on Wednesday about this upcoming meeting with Xi — or whether Biden would talk to Xi about Trump.
“This is a tough, complicated relationship between the U.S .and China, and so whatever the next administration decides, they’re going to need to find ways to manage that tough, complicated relationship,” the official said.
Biden had built on parts of Trump’s China policy during his term, elevating meetings of the informal grouping known as the Quad — the U.S., Japan, India and Australia — maintaining Trump’s tariffs on China, for the most part. Trump threatened during his campaign to hike those tariffs once again.
Biden could use his meeting with Xi to underscore that China needs to change its trade practices, not just threaten retaliation, said Danny Russel, a top State Department official in the Obama administration, in an interview.
“I would look to Biden to make some practical points, because the likelihood of the Trump administration imposing tariffs is real,” said Russel, now with the Asia Society. “And that should be a clarion call to the big offenders like China that they need to adjust their policies and their practices.”