The Washington Post (WP) reported on the 5th (local time), citing senior U.S. administration officials, that the White House has begun making plans for a face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November.

“We are very firm” on the possibility of a meeting between the U.S. and Chinese leaders, said an administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the schedule for the meeting has not yet been officially announced. “We are starting to plan.”

Another senior administration official said President Biden is looking forward to meeting with President Xi, but noted that “nothing has been confirmed yet.”

If the face-to-face meeting between the US and China leaders takes place in November, it will be the first time since the two leaders met at the G20 summit held in Bali, Indonesia in November last year. At the time in Bali, the leaders of the United States and China emphasized the importance of face-to-face diplomacy and expressed hope that relations between the two countries could return to normal.

However, after President Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese reconnaissance balloon that moved over the American continent in February of this year, U.S.-China relations worsened further.

Since then, four senior officials from the Biden administration, including Secretary of State Tony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Lamondo and climate special envoy John Kerry, have visited Beijing in recent months to seek improved relations. In particular, last month, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan held a two-day meeting with his counterpart, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in Malta. The White House positively evaluated the meeting as “frank, substantive and constructive.”

However, President Biden often made provocative remarks toward China during fundraising events and interviews with reporters. At a fundraiser in June, he called President Xi a “dictator” who did not know about the spy balloons and said the Chinese president was “very embarrassed” when the balloons were shot down. He also noted that China is experiencing “real economic difficulties.”

Nonetheless, Biden has repeatedly stated over the past few months that he “looks forward to meeting with President Xi at some point in the future, in the near future,” at a press conference last June.

Last month, President Xi did not attend the G20 summit held in New Delhi, and Biden expressed disappointment, but Biden added, “I will go to meet him.”

Source: Donga