Chinese President Xi Jinping met his American counterpart Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. The main aim was to “build a floor” for U.S.-China relations to prevent them from deteriorating further. The highly anticipated meeting between the two leaders came amid heightened tensions in the Taiwan Strait and U.S. moves to restrict China’s access to microchips. No joint statement was issued after their meeting. President Biden said the goal of the meeting was to prevent the two countries from going to war. “We share responsibility, in my view, to show that China and the United States can manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming anything ever near conflict, and to find ways to work together on urgent global issues that require our mutual cooperation,” Biden said. “I’m committed to keep lines of communication open between you and me personally, and our governments across the board, because our two countries have so much that we have the opportunity to deal with,” said Biden in opening remarks. He added that the U.S. side has no intention to seek decoupling from China, to halt China’s economic development, or to contain China.
President Xi Jinping said the world is paying attention to the high-stakes meeting between him and U.S. President Biden, according to CNN. “Currently the China-U.S. relationship is in such a situation that we all care a lot about it because this is not in the fundamental interest of our two countries and peoples, and it is not what the international community expects from us,” Xi said in his opening remarks at the meeting. “As leaders of the two major countries we need to chart the right course for the U.S.-China relationship. We need to find the right direction and elevate the relationship,” he added. The talks lasted for about three hours.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang crossed paths with U.S. President Joe Biden at the East Asia Summit in Cambodia on November 13, but there are no reports that they talked to each other, CNN and the South China Morning Post report.
While in Bali, President Xi will also hold meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
