China and the U.S. have moved closer to holding a leaders’ summit next month on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific economic summit in San Francisco after Beijing’s top diplomat became the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit Washington in nearly five years late last week.
Washington and Beijing are working together toward holding the meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, both sides said after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s talks with Biden, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan wrapped up Friday.
During the visit, Wang met with Biden for about an hour, with the U.S. leader emphasizing the need to “manage competition in the relationship responsibly” and maintain open lines of communication while cooperating on global challenges, the White House said.
The visit by Wang had been seen as a move to help pave the way for a Biden-Xi meeting during the Nov. 15-17 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit in San Francisco. The White House has announced that Biden will travel to the city for the summit on Nov. 14.
A senior U.S. official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, would not elaborate on whether the meeting would actually happen, but said the U.S. side had already been readying for the possibility.
“We are working together towards that goal and making preparations on our side,” the official said, adding that “Chinese leaders often confirm publicly much closer to a trip, so I will leave it to the Chinese side to figure out if and when they make that announcement."
The Associated Press and Bloomberg News, meanwhile, reported that the two sides had worked out an agreement “in principle” to hold a Xi-Biden meeting during the summit. The reports said that details on the exact day of the meeting, venue and other logistics had not yet been worked out.
But, in comments released Sunday, China's Foreign Ministry said that Wang had cautioned that the "road to the San Francisco summit will not be a smooth one” and that the two countries cannot get there on "autopilot."
Both sides, he told a discussion with members of the U.S. strategic community in Washington on Saturday, need to "return to Bali” — a reference to the leaders’ last meeting in November 2022 on the Indonesian resort Island — and “truly implement the consensus reached by the two leaders, eliminate interference, overcome obstacles, enhance consensus, and accumulate achievements.”
During their talks Friday, Wang told Biden that the goal of his visit was to help "halt the decline" in Sino-U.S. ties "with an eye on San Francisco," a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry said without offering further details.
But a separate readout from the ministry for Wang's meetings with Blinken and Sullivan said that "both sides agreed to work together to achieve a meeting between the two heads of state in San Francisco."
The U.S. said Wang had spoken with Sullivan for three hours on Friday, while holding a total of seven hours of “candid and in-depth” talks with Blinken over two days, with the top U.S. diplomat underscoring “the need to resume military-to-military channels.”
“We both have a profound stake in avoiding miscommunication and miscalculation,” another senior U.S. official said in reference to the lack of military talks, noting the “unsafe intercept” of a U.S. military B-52 bomber by a Chinese fighter jet in international airspace over the disputed South China Sea earlier this week.
Senior Biden administration officials have repeatedly voiced a need for reopening military channels, calling them crucial for staving off a miscalculation or miscommunication that could spiral into full-blown conflict.
The focus on a reopening of military channels comes after China removed Li Shangfu from his post as defense chief last week.
Li — who was sanctioned by the United States, presenting an obstacle toward improving military ties — was also dismissed from his more powerful post as a state councilor on Tuesday, in a move approved by Xi.
“Now that Li Shangfu is no longer in that position, we are again, of course, pressing for resumption," the first U.S. official said. "I think we're hopeful that we'll see some progress.”
U.S. officials had a chance to make progress Sunday, as a U.S. delegation attended the three-day Beijing Xiangshan Forum. Senior U.S. defense officials have said they hope to use the event to help “kick-start” military-to-military engagements with China.
Military-to-military channels were effectively shut down following then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s August 2022 visit to Taiwan. Pelosi’s trip deeply angered China — which claims the self-ruled island as a rogue province that must be united with the mainland, by force, if necessary.
According to the State Department, Blinken emphasized “the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” where China has ramped up military exercises in recent months, conducting large-scale drills around the democratic island that have unnerved Washington and its regional allies.
Wang said the issue of Taiwan independence was “the biggest threat to peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait — and “the biggest challenge facing U.S.-China relations.” This, he said, “must be resolutely opposed and reflected in specific policies and actions” by the United States.
The U.S. says it does not support changes to the status quo on Taiwan. Although Washington does not have diplomatic ties with Taipei, it is bound by law to provide the island with arms to defend itself.
Blinken and Wang also had "frank exchanges" over the Israel-Hamas war and the broader situation in the Middle East.
U.S. officials said the issue came up often during the meetings with Wang, but that it was unclear whether Washington was able to get Beijing to commit to using its influence with Iran to help prevent the war from spreading and becoming a larger conflagration.
"We expressed our deep concern with the situation and pressed China to take a more constructive approach, and that would include, of course, their engagements with the Iranians, to urge calm," the first senior administration official said.
The White House has attempted to breathe new life into ties with Beijing since the summer by sending a spate of Cabinet-level officials to China. Blinken visited Beijing in June, followed by trips by Treasury and Commerce secretaries Janet Yellen and Gina Raimondo as well as climate envoy John Kerry. Last month, Sullivan held two days of intense talks with Wang in Malta.
But the U.S. president has in recent months done little to engender an atmosphere conducive to a meeting, angering China — and Xi, in particular — by labeling the Chinese leader a dictator, calling the ruling Communist Party leadership "bad folks” and blasting China’s economic problems as a "ticking time bomb.”
“The resumption of U.S.-China high-level engagement has restored several habits that previously supported stability and predictability in relations. These include a reciprocal commitment to ‘no surprises’ for managing relations,” according to Ryan Hass, who served as the National Security Council’s China director under U.S. President Barack Obama.
Hass, writing in a commentary posted to the Brookings Institute website, said that even as both sides continue to take actions they view as protective but the other side views as unfriendly, they have each previewed their actions privately to the other side in advance to clarify the intentions and limits of their respective approaches.
“Under the surface, though, tensions continue to boil,” said Hass, who is currently a China expert at Brookings. “Neither side has resolved nor lessened any significant challenges in the relationship. Increased frequency of communication has not yielded convergence around key issues. Instead, the relationship has settled into a period of communication without concessions in either direction.”
Now, as Biden and his Republican rivals gear up for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, next month’s APEC summit could prove to be one of the last chances for the two leaders to stabilize Sino-U.S. ties. Biden, who has said he will seek re-election, will see his time consumed by what is expected to be a hard-fought campaign in which the U.S. rivalry with China will be a hot-button issue.
“Stabilizing relations with China while remaining firm in defense of U.S. interests and values would enjoy broad public support within the United States,” Hass said. “Likewise, Xi would benefit in China if he can demonstrate progress in recalibrating relations with the United States.
“Both leaders have an opportunity to advance their respective interests when they meet in San Francisco. Time will tell whether they prove capable of seizing it.”
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.