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Xi-Biden summit important to help US and China avoid ‘unintended conflict’, White House official says
- Meeting can help clarify ‘understanding of one another’s intentions’, according to the US official
- The two leaders’ first virtual meeting, expected to last several hours, could help gauge the prospects for their countries’ troubled relations
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Taiwan is expected to feature in the meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Tuesday morning Beijing time (Monday night in Washington) as the pair discuss their countries’ many points of disagreement.
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“This leader-level meeting is important to manage the competition” between the two countries and avoid “an unintended conflict”, a senior administration official said on Sunday at a briefing on the summit.
She said the two presidents’ first face-to-face interaction – albeit virtual – since Biden took office 10 months ago was expected to last several hours. It will be their most substantial discussion so far, after speaking by telephone on two occasions.
Biden initiated the meeting to allow dialogue “in a number of areas where we both need to have a clear understanding of one another’s intentions”, the official said. “We need to not only keep channels of communication open, but to build those common-sense guardrails to avoid miscalculation and misunderstanding.”
The summit will be scrutinised for signs of movement in US-China relations. Hostility between the sides has not only outlasted the administration of Donald Trump, who began a trade war with Beijing, but escalated in areas including the Indo-Pacific and US engagement with Taiwan.
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