ALBAWABA – Japan’s leading news agency Kyodo reported Wednesday that United States (US) President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping will hold talks on November 15, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.
Is the West appeasing China to stay out of Mideast conflict amid Israeli onslaught on Gaza?This would be the first face-to-face meeting between Biden and China’s Xi in nearly a year, an unnamed senior US official told Kyodo, as reported by Bloomberg.
Final preparations are underway for the meeting, the official reportedly confirmed.
So far, however, China hasn’t announced Xi’s attendance at APEC, though the White House has said the two leaders will meet.
China’s Xi is also likely to be the guest of honor at a dinner with top US business executives in San Francisco next week, Bloomberg News reported earlier.
High on the list of priorities for Xi during his US visit is calming foreign investors, according to the New York-based news agency.
Recent surveys show Western executives in China are increasingly nervous about doing business there, due to a span of issues, from geopolitical tensions and a slowing economy to detention of employees.
China's Xi Jinping will meet with America's Joe Biden on November 15 - Shutterstock
Notably, China and the US have been engaged in a tech-trade war for a few years now, since Donald Trump’s final months in office.
The war peaked in 2023 with the US enforcing rules that restricted American investments in Chinese AI and advanced microchip sectors and banned the export of advanced semiconductors to China.
China also replied with a series of bans and restrictions on the exportation of critical components and minerals that are used in the production of advanced AI and semiconductor technology, as well as Electric Vehicle and batteries.
Nonetheless, the two countries seem to have been making strides towards rapprochement in and around the time of the surprise Gaza attack on October 7.
In what seemed like an effort to appease China to keep it out of the possible conflict in the Middle East, amid the ongoing onslaught on Gaza, US officials rushed to visit China in the week following the attack.
Meanwhile, a Chinese fleet was reportedly seen leaving Oman on October 14.
Just days after, the US announced fruitful economic talks with the Chinese and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi suddenly left for Washington. Since then, Sino-American relations seem to be on the mending path, especially with the presidents of both countries scheduled to meet next week.
