It’s “possible”, not yet probable. American President Joe Biden mentioned on Friday as “a possibility” a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit, organized in mid-November in San Francisco. Beijing has not confirmed the participation of its president in this summit.
“I intend and hope to continue our Bali conversation this fall. This is what I expect,” Joe Biden said last August, referring to his meeting with Xi Jinping in November 2022 in Bali, Indonesia, during a G20 summit.
Calm tensions down
“Such a meeting has not been organized, but it is a possibility,” Joe Biden reiterated Friday during a press conference at the White House, after American media reported that the two leaders had planned to meet to ease tensions between the two countries.
If Beijing and Washington have renewed dialogue with a succession of meetings between senior officials, bilateral relations remain tense, crystallized around trade disputes, the question of Chinese expansion in the South China Sea and the status of the democratic island autonomous Taiwan
In June, Joe Biden offended Beijing by asserting that Xi Jinping belonged to the category of “dictators”, a comment seen as a “provocation” by Chinese diplomacy.