China confirms Xi, Biden meeting on sidelines of G20 summit in Bali

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
11 Nov 2022 12:11

The Chinese leader will be meeting with US President Joe Biden in a first since Xi got re-elected as the CCP's leader this year for a third term.

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping meeting in 2015

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold meetings with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the three-day-long G20 Summit scheduled to begin on November 14.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Xi will be also meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Senegalese President Macky Sall, and Argentina's Alberto Fernandez on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali.

After the summit ends, Xi will then head to Thailand on November 17 to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Zhao confirmed.

Earlier today, Beijing's Foreign Ministry confirmed that Xi Jinping will attend the G20 summit next week and that he will be meeting with Biden in a first since Xi got re-elected as the CCP's leader this year for a third term.

Yesterday, White House Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that Biden and Xi will meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit to discuss a range of regional and global issues to "discuss efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication," as well as how to "responsibly manage competition and work together where our interests align."

Since becoming President in January 2021, Biden has not met with the Chinese leader, limiting contact between the two superpowers leaders to a series of phone and video calls.

Their last meeting in person was in 2015 when Joe Biden was then Vice-President to former US President Barak Obama

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Tensions have been mounting between the world's two biggest economies since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island of Taiwan in early August.

China condemned Pelosi's trip, which it regarded as a gesture of support for separatism, and launched large-scale military exercises in the vicinity of the island.

The US has recently approved $1.1 billion for a potential arms deal with Taiwan which Taipei intends to use to increase its security budget.

It has also waged a massive campaign aimed at undermining China's tech dominance by tightening "export controls" vis-à-vis Beijing and barring the sale of Chinese-made memory chips on the US market.