Tokyo, 13 November, /AJMEDIA/
U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will meet Monday evening in a virtual format, the White House said, while tamping down expectations of any “major deliverables” coming out of their first bilateral summit amid tense relations between the two countries.
The two leaders, who have talked twice over the phone since Biden became president, will discuss ways to “responsibly manage the competition” between the United States and China, as well as ways to work together where their interests align, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Friday.
“Throughout, President Biden will make clear U.S. intentions and priorities and be clear and candid about our concerns with the PRC,” she said, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
The Biden administration has been raising concerns about a range of Beijing’s actions, including alleged human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority in China’s far-western Xinjiang region, its crackdown on Hong Kong’s freedoms, its assertiveness in the East and South China seas, as well as its increased pressure on Taiwan.
Psaki told a press conference later in the day that the upcoming talks would be “more about setting the terms, in our view, of an effective competition where we’re in a position to defend our values.”
“I wouldn’t set the expectation, I should say, that this is intended to have…major deliverables or outcomes,” she said.
Psaki declined to mention specific topics that would be discussed during the meeting.
U.S. business news network CNBC reported Thursday that the Chinese president is expected to use the bilateral talks to extend a personal invitation to Biden attend the events of the Beijing Winter Olympics in February.
The invitation would serve as a challenge to Biden to decline and put the relationship on ice, or accept and contradict his administration’s own messaging of promoting democracy and human rights, CNBC said.
In May, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for a “diplomatic boycott” in light of what Washington calls China’s “genocide” against Uyghurs, meaning a refusal of world leaders and other government representatives to attend the Winter Olympics, while athletes still compete.
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to hit countries around the world, the games are planned to be held without spectators from overseas.
