The plan for the meeting comes as the U.S.-China relationship has reached one of its lowest points in decades.
President Biden will hold his first in-person presidential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday in Bali ahead of the Group of 20 summit next week.
“The Leaders will discuss efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication between the United States and the [People’s Republic of China], responsibly manage competition, and work together where our interests align, especially on transnational challenges that affect the international community,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Thursday. “The two Leaders will also discuss a range of regional and global issues.”
The meeting comes after months of speculation over whether the two leaders would meet at the global summit of the world’s most powerful governments. It will come as the U.S.-China relationship has reached one of its lowest points in decades. Biden’s national security strategy identified China as “America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge,” noting that the president was particularly worried about the country’s efforts to “layer authoritarian governance with a revisionist foreign policy.”
A senior administration official said on a call with reporters that White House aides expect the meeting to be a “substantive and in-depth conversation” between the two leaders but did not anticipate substantive progress on major issues. The official also said Biden would be “honest” about a “number of concerns,” including long-standing human rights issues.
