President Biden will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the San Francisco Bay Area next week during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, the White House announced Friday.
The two leaders on Wednesday will discuss the strategic direction of U.S.-China relations. Mr. Biden will seek to open more lines of communication, including a renewed military-to-military relationship that Beijing shut off a year ago, senior administration officials told reporters in a pre-summit briefing.
Among the topics to be discussed by the U.S. side are the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Increased tension over Taiwan also is expected to be a topic of what officials said is a range of contentious issues, including anticipated Chinese government interference in January’s presidential election.
“It’s something we’re extremely concerned about and, of course, we’ll plan on delivering that message again,” one official said of the election interference.
“We’re also quite concerned by a ramping up of military activities around Taiwan in ways that are unprecedented, that are dangerous, that are provocative,” the official said.
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China views Taiwan as its territory, and Mr. Xi has ordered his military to be ready to use force in the coming years to retake the island.
Chinese military activities have ramped up around Taiwan in the past several months, including large-scale war games that have included missile firings near the island.
This week, China sailed an aircraft carrier strike group led by the Shandong down the Taiwan Strait.
The passage came a week after U.S. and Canadian warships transited the 100-mile-wide strait.
On military relations, the officials said restoring communications with China is a major goal of the summit.
“We’ve raised the importance of mil-mil channels in nearly every conversation we’ve had with the Chinese because it is absolutely critical,” the second official said.
“And when we’re talking about managing risks about avoiding conflict, this is exactly the sort of communication we need to be having, both at senior levels of our military, but also operator to operator,” the official said.
Mr. Biden will raise a number of issues in addition to Ukraine and the Middle East.
“I think with respect to the Middle East, the president will underscore our desire for China to make clear in its burgeoning relationship with Iran, that is essential that Iran not seek to escalate or spread violence in the Middle East and to warn quite clearly that if Iran undertakes provocative actions anywhere that the United States is prepared to respond and respond promptly,” the first official said.
Chinese human rights abuses and North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, along with Pyongyang’s supply of military goods to Russia, also will be raised, the officials said.
Chinese bullying of the Philippines in the South China Sea, where Chinese coast guard vessels have harassed Philippine resupply ships, also will be discussed.
The officials sought to play down any major breakthrough in U.S.-China relations.
“The goals here are really about managing the competition, preventing the downside risk of conflict and ensuring channels of communication are open,” one of the officials said.
The exact location of the meeting, the first face-to-face session since the last talks in Bali, Indonesia, a year ago, was not disclosed over security concerns, the officials said.
The APEC summit will be held at a convention center in downtown San Francisco, a city plagued with open-air drug markets and poor sanitation as a result of large-scale homeless encampments.
Human rights protesters and other activists are expected to turn out for the Chinese leader’s visit.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.