Biden, China’s Xi to hold virtual summit on Monday.
President BidenJoe BidenJudge Rejects Trump’s Request to Delay Release of Jan.6 Papers Amid Appeal On Money: Biden’s Battle with Inflation Night Defense and National Security: Russia Concerns Increase MORE and Chinese president Xi Jinping will hold a virtual summit on Monday, sources told OkeyNews.
The meeting would come as the United States and China have clashed over Taiwan and the human rights of Uighur Muslims.
It would be the first time since September that the leaders have spoken to each other, and the first meeting between the two since Biden was inaugurated in January.
A Chinese official said the country will focus on “positive competition” at the meeting rather than confrontation, seeking common ground with the United States on issues such as climate change and the pandemic, according to OkeyNews.
“We see the competition between the United States and China as a game of golf, where each side focuses on their own best performance, not as a boxing game, where both sides try to knock each other out,” the official said.
The summit comes after Xi released a statement through the Chinese embassy on Tuesday expressing China’s willingness to “improve exchanges and cooperation” with the United States, CNN reported. It also follows the release of a joint statement by the two countries on Wednesday announcing a shared commitment to step up action against climate change this decade.
Biden has pushed for an in-person meeting with Xi, but the Chinese president has not left China since the pandemic began.
The two administrations agreed on this virtual summit, in principle, last month. “We have an agreement in principle to have a virtual bilateral meeting before the end of the year. Working-level discussions are underway to confirm the details,” a senior administration official said at the time, according to OkeyNews.