MORE IS BETTER THAN NONE: US, China Agree in Principle on Biden-Xi Meeting...Nothing is official as officials lower the expectations

30 October 2023

MORE IS BETTER THAN NONE: US, China Agree in Principle on Biden-Xi Meeting...Nothing is official as officials lower the expectations

China believes the path to a Xi-Biden meeting in San Francisco in November won’t be ‘smooth sailing’

Updated 7:31 PM PDT, October 29, 2023

BEIJING (AP) — China’s foreign minister believes the road to an expected meeting between President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden will not be “smooth sailing” and both sides must work together to achieve results, the foreign ministry said Sunday.

Wang Yi met with Biden, as well as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, during a three-day visit to Washington. Both sides agreed to work toward a bilateral meeting on the side of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco that begins Nov. 11.

In an statement released by China’s foreign ministry summarizing the discussions, Wang said the road to the bilateral meeting would not be “smooth sailing” and that they could not rely on “autopilot” to make it happen. . .

Wang said that the two countries must “eliminate interference, overcome obstacles, enhance consensus and accumulate results.”

Other issues discussed between Wang and Biden included military exchanges between the U.S. and China, as well as financial, technological and cultural exchanges and cooperation, as well as the crises in the Middle East and Ukraine.