–O Adejo
China’s President Xi Jinping will meet with US President Joe Biden at the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia. This will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since Joe Biden took over as President in 2021.
For several years, the two countries have clashed over issues ranging from Hong Kong and Taiwan to the South China Sea, coercive trade practices, and US restrictions on Chinese technology.
President Biden met with Asian leaders in Cambodia on Monday, telling them that communication channels with China will remain open, but that the talks will be difficult. He went on to say that he has always had open discussions with Xi, which has kept neither of them from miscalculating their intentions.
Biden arrived in Bali on Sunday night, after his Democratic party retained control of the Senate following a better-than-expected performance in the midterm elections. President Jinping is also fresh off a victory, having won re-election to a third term at the Communist Party Congress last month.
Tensions arose after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August. China, which considers Taiwan to be part of its territory, did not take her visit lightly and spent days after her departure conducting various military drills.
According to reports, China will focus on trade restrictions and Taiwan during the meeting. China wants the United States to remove some of the tariffs imposed by former President Donald Trump in 2019 as well as relax restrictions on Chinese access to chips and other US technology.
President Biden of the United States will almost certainly demand that China take a more assertive stance in the Ukraine conflict. China has avoided publicly criticising the war and typically abstains from key United Nations votes. Biden is also expected to try to persuade China to pressure North Korea to halt its missile tests. So far, North Korea has conducted several missile tests, and it is expected that the country will conduct more soon.
The G20 Summit will get underway on Tuesday. This is Xi Jinping’s second overseas trip since COVID-19 and its aftermath.
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