Comment NUSA DUA, Indonesia — President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping began a high-stakes meeting here Monday, the first face-to-face exchange between them as leaders of their nations and at a time of heightened tensions between world powers. The meeting is Biden’s most consistent during a week-long trip abroad, with the two countries clashing over trade, the war in Ukraine and economic and military threats, and many fear the US-China relationship could develop into a cold war. With aides and advisers looking on from afar at draped tables in a ballroom at the palatial Mulia resort – everyone in the delegations is wearing masks except for the two main figures – both presidents stressed the importance of face-to-face diplomacy and expressed hope that they could get US-China relations back on track. As Biden and Xi meet, can their old relationship prevent a clash? “The world expects, I think, the US and China to play a key role in global challenges, from climate change to food insecurity, and for us to be able to work together,” Biden said in his opening remarks. “The United States is ready to do just that.” Xi said moments later that “China-US relations are currently facing a situation that is not in the interests of the two countries, their peoples or the expectations of the international community. As leaders of China and the United States, we must take the helm and steer the bilateral relationship in the right direction.” As reporters were ushered out of the room, a TV producer called out to ask Biden if he would violate human rights during the talks. A man on the Chinese side pulled the producer back by her backpack and she lost her balance but did not fall. Two White House staffers then stepped in and said the producer should be left alone. Each leader, in Bali for the Group of 20 summit, came to the table feeling newly emboldened. Xi has consolidated control — securing a rule-defying third five-year term and consolidating power to a degree not seen since the era of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Biden is fresh off a midterm election in which his party fared much better than expected and will retain his Senate majority. White House officials were buoyed by the Democrats’ showing last week in the midterm elections, with several reporting that foreign leaders approached Biden to comment on his new domestic victories, citing key states and districts with an impressive familiarity they said it even came from counterparts who do not represent democracies. The meeting between Biden and Xi took place on the third day of Biden’s Asia swing. He first arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Saturday for a summit of Southeast Asian nations where the US aimed to unite them as a counterweight to the growing economic and military threat posed by China. The US-China meeting has begun shortly after 17:30 local time and can be extended for hours. The plan was for simultaneous translators, which U.S. officials often favored as a way to speed up the dialogue so each leader didn’t have to wait for the other to finish before translating. The face-to-face is the result of months of calm negotiations as diplomats laid the groundwork for the talks. Senior Biden administration officials characterized those discussions as an improvement in the countries’ interactions, although they kept low expectations for any progress due to the meeting. Biden and Xi have held five phone calls since the start of Biden’s presidency, but have not met in person since 2017. A joint statement, which is typical when the sides want to show progress and areas of agreement, is not expected at the end of the meeting. White House officials previously said they did not expect any major announcements. Instead, they characterized the moment as the start of a long process, one to help thaw a relationship fraught with so much tension that even talks on issues of mutual interest, such as climate change, have sometimes stalled. Officials said they know the United States is in “fierce competition” with China — and Biden “embraces that” — but that continued dialogue would be important to defuse tensions. “The lines of communication must be open. Period, period,” a senior administration official said before the meeting. “The only thing worse than having a controversial conversation is not having a conversation at all.” One area the two men are expected to discuss is economic rivalry. Biden has maintained tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump and implemented restrictions on the sale of semiconductors and chip-making equipment to China. “He wants to make sure that competition is limited, that we develop guardrails, that we have clear rules of the road and that we do all this to make sure that competition doesn’t divert into conflict,” the administration official said, speaking of the premise of anonymity to preview conversations. China wants to mend ties with the US, but won’t make the first move. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, speaking to reporters hours before the Biden-Xi meeting, said she expected the conversation to include the state of the Chinese and global economies. After decades of rapid growth, the Chinese economy slowed significantly this year. Repeated lockdowns under Xi’s rigid “zero-coronavirus” policy and the over-indebted property sector, which accounts for a fifth of the economy, were major factors. The International Monetary Fund said last month that the country’s annual growth rate this year is expected to be 3.2 percent, compared with more than 8 percent in 2021. “First and foremost, today’s meeting is intended to stabilize the relationship between the United States and China and create a more confident atmosphere for American businesses to understand what to expect,” Yellen said. The Treasury secretary reiterated that US companies are too dependent on China as a source for critical products, including minerals needed to make electric vehicle batteries. But he suggested that much of the $600 billion in annual trade flows between the countries should continue. “We want a safer and more resilient supply chain. But certainly across a wide range of commercial activities — and American companies doing business in China — that’s certainly not something we intend to block,” he said. Biden also planned to raise long-standing issues the United States has with China’s human rights record. They have been at loggerheads over Taiwan, particularly after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the self-ruled island that Beijing considers part of its territory in August. Xi had asked Biden to find a way to prevent her from visiting. in the wake of her trip, China suspended talks with the United States on a number of other issues. “Both sides seem to want the leaders meeting in Bali to turn down the heat on an overheated relationship,” said Danny Russell, a former diplomat who advised Biden on previous meetings with Xi and who is now vice president of the Asia Institute. Political Society. “Washington is aware of the risk of an inadvertent incident quickly escalating into a crisis,” Russell added. “Beijing is seeking to avoid another round of punitive US measures such as the recent export controls on semiconductors.” Going into the meeting, China had signaled it wanted to get ties back on track and prevent disagreements from escalating into conflict. But the two sides have completely different ideas about how to create guardrails, noted Chen Dongxiao, president of the Shanghai Institutes of International Studies, a think tank. “China sets the ‘floor’ from a strategic and political perspective, which is essentially about not letting the United States repeatedly threaten or harm China’s core interests,” he said, while Beijing only sees the minutes measures as “unreliable and of little use”. Congress seeks to quickly arm Taiwan as China’s threat grows The White House found it remarkable that Xi first warned against using nuclear weapons in Russia’s war against Ukraine when he met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz last week. His comment was seen as a clear message to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I think there is definitely an uneasiness in Beijing about what we’ve seen in terms of reckless rhetoric and activity on the part of Russia,” a second senior government official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters on Monday. “I think it’s also undeniable that China is probably surprised and a little embarrassed by the conduct of Russian military operations.” The meeting took place at the Mulia resort, where both the Chinese and Russian delegations are said to be staying. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was not present when Biden and Xi arrived in their motorcades. Earlier in the day, Russian officials dismissed claims that Lavrov had been taken to hospital after falling ill as “the height of falsification”. In the hours before the high-profile meeting, groups of Russian and Chinese delegates huddled around the Mulia’s grand lobby, which opens onto a sweeping view of palm trees lining the sea. The five-star resort, which has 526 rooms, was largely vacated to accommodate the G-20 delegations, officials said. Many bars and restaurants located inside the resort were quiet except for waiters wearing masks and face shields. An Indonesian performer sat on the orange marble floor, playing the traditional Balinese bamboo rindik. At 5 p.m., as the sun began to set, press swarmed the hotel entrance as Biden and Xi arrived. Guided by security personnel, the two leaders entered a ballroom where the meeting was held. The Biden-Xi meeting is a reconnection for a relationship that developed more than a decade ago, when each man was vice president of his country…
