Biden and Xi will gather on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Lima, Peru – for their first talks in seven months – where Pacific Rim leaders will assess the implications of Trump’s return to the US presidency on January 20. They are scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. local time (2100 GMT), the White House said.
Washington is angered by the hacking of phone communications from US government and presidential campaign officials with ties to China, and worries about increasing pressure by Beijing on Taiwan and China’s support for Russia.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te plans to make stops in the state of Hawaii and possibly Guam on a sensitive visit that is sure to anger Beijing in the coming weeks, Reuters reported on Friday. Meanwhile, Biden met Taiwan’s representative at the summit, former economy minister Lin Hsin-i, who invited him to visit Taiwan in the future.
China regards the democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory. The US is Taiwan’s most important international supporter and arms supplier, although it has no official diplomatic recognition.
At the same time, Beijing’s economy took a hard hit from Biden’s measures on trade, including plans to limit US investment in China’s artificial intelligence, quantum computing and semiconductors and export restrictions on high-end computer chips. All topics are expected to figure into the negotiations, US officials said. China regularly rejects US hacking allegations, regards Taiwan as an internal matter and has protested American statements on Sino-Russian trade. A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to comment.BLANKET rates
Trump has vowed to use a blanket 60% tariffs on US imports of Chinese goods as part of a package of “America First” trade measures. Beijing opposed the move. The Republican president-elect also plans to hire several hawkish voices on China in senior roles, including US Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state and Representative Mike Waltz as national security adviser.
On Wednesday, Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan described the transition as “a time when competitors and opponents can see the possibilities.” Biden will emphasize with Xi “the need to maintain stability, clarity, predictability through the transition between the United States and China.”
Shen Dingli, a Shanghai-based international relations scholar, said China wanted the meeting to ease tensions during the transition period. “China certainly does not want relations with the United States to be thrown into turmoil before Trump officially takes office,” Shen said.
The summit in South America offers new signs of challenge to the power of the United States in its own backyard, where China is on a charm offensive.
Xi, who arrived in Lima on Thursday, is planning a week-long diplomatic foray into Latin America that will include a revamped free trade agreement with Peru, inaugurating the huge Chancay deepwater port there and a welcome in the Brazilian capital next week to the nation. visit
China is eyeing Latin American metal ores, soybeans and other commodities, but US officials worry it may seek new military and intelligence outposts close to the US. China’s state-backed media called the allegations a smear.
US officials say Washington’s commitment to the region is strong and that China’s infrastructure investment overseas has declined in recent years due to domestic challenges and problems with the project.
But Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, said Xi would meet with a good reception in the region.
“Biden’s trip will be clearly overshadowed by all the things that Xi Jinping will do when he visits APEC,” he said. “When Xi met with Biden, part of the audience was not – not just the White House or the US government. It was about American CEOs and US investment continuing or trying to renew US investment in China and get rid of the perception that there is a hostile business environment in China.”
