Saturday will probably be the last meeting between Biden and Xi: NPR

LIMA, Peru – President Biden is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Lima, Peru, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Wednesday. spoke.

The meeting between the two leaders will be the third and likely the last of Biden’s term. They last met about a year ago in Woodside, California.

The meeting comes as Biden prepares to hand over the reins of power to President-elect Donald Trump. Sullivan said Biden told President Xi that “we need to maintain stability, clarity, and predictability through this transition,” adding that in the long term, the two governments will continue to work together, especially at the military-to-military level. He said he plans to communicate the need to keep communication channels open. .

“This is an important meeting. It’s not just a greeting from the governor, but there will also be an element of looking back on the long relationship between the two,” he said. “There is real work to be done at this critical time between the United States and China to ensure that there are no complications during the next two months of this transition.”

Sullivan said Biden wants to “consolidate progress” in areas where the two countries have common ground, including stopping the flow of illicit fentanyl, managing risks related to artificial intelligence and climate issues.
During his term, Biden built on some of Trump’s China policies, increasing meetings of an informal group of the United States, Japan, India and Australia known as the Quad, and largely maintaining Trump’s China tariffs. I was doing it.

Biden also introduced new export control measures on sensitive technology to prevent China from using it.

Sullivan cited Congressman Mike Walz, whom President Trump nominated as National Security Adviser, and Senator Marco Rubio, whom President Trump nominated as Secretary of State, and said there was a certain continuity between the two administrations. He said he was focused on the strategic challenges posed. By China.

During his campaign, President Trump threatened to raise tariffs on China again. Danny Russell, an Obama administration official at the State Department, said in an interview that Biden could use the meeting with Xi to emphasize that China needs to change its trade practices, not just threaten retaliation. Ta.

Russell, who is currently a member of the Asia Society, said, “There is a real possibility that the Trump administration will impose tariffs, so I would like to see some realistic points from Mr. Biden.” “And that should be a clarion call to big criminals like China that we need to adjust our policies and practices.”