According to information in the American media, the possibilities of arranging a meeting between the two in connection with the already planned Apec meeting in San Francisco on November 11-17 are being investigated. Twenty countries in Asia and around the Pacific are expected to participate, including the United States and China.
“There is nothing definite about a meeting, but it would be a possibility,” Biden told reporters in Washington when asked about a possible meeting with Xi Jinping there.
China has yet to announce whether the president will even come to the Apec meeting. As recently as September, Xi Jinping skipped the G20 meeting in India where he could have met Biden.
It is almost a year since they both met face to face, then in connection with the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia. Relations between the two countries are not the best. China’s repeated and escalated marking of Taiwan, which China considers part of China and which the US has warned China against attacking, is a stumbling block. Another is China’s lack of distance from Russia’s attack on and invasion of Ukraine.
In terms of trade, it is also squeaking – the US, for example, has stopped the export of computer chips to China. Several attempts have been made from both sides, although below the presidential level, to thaw relations. A meeting at the highest level could help.