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One of President Joe Biden’s favorite anecdotes involves getting to know China’s Xi Jinping when they were their nations’ vice presidents more than a decade ago.
Biden estimates they’ve had more than 67 cumulative hours of face time across visits to Washington and Beijing and in meetings at global summits.
“I know Xi Jinping. I’ve spent more time with him than any other world leader. I know him well. He knows me,” Biden asserted Sunday in Cambodia.
Biden is optimistic about their ability to rekindle their relationship at a high-stakes G-20 summit of the world’s top economies in Bali, or, at the very least, arrive at a place of mutual understanding about how not cross each other’s red lines.
“I’ve always had straightforward discussions with him,” Biden said. “There’s never any – any miscalculation about what each of us – where each of us stand.”
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Much has changed since Biden traveled to Beijing to meet with Xi in 2011, and Xi made his reciprocal visit in 2012 to Washington.
Xi called Biden a “friend” during the Democrat’s trip to China, and Biden told Xi he was “impressed” with his host’s grasp on knowledge of history, openness and candor.
The U.S. now considers China its biggest strategic and economic competitor, and experts worry the relationship is teetering on the edge.
“China-U.S. tensions are at a pretty big boiling point,” says Erin Murphy, a senior fellow in the economic program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Although the leaders have spoken five times by phone or video conference since Biden took office in 2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic, this is their first in-person meeting with both men leading their nations.
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At least four issues are bound to arise:
Taiwan: Biden has said he will raise concerns about Xi’s desire to reunify China with Taiwan.
