Xi, Biden to hold talks in San Francisco

Summit to discuss bilateral ties, major issues of world peace, development

President Xi Jinping will meet with United States President Joe Biden in San Francisco during his visit to the American city from Tuesday through Friday, amid high expectations that the two leaders' face-to-face meeting will discuss ways to stabilize bilateral relations, which have worsened in recent years.

The China-US summit meeting was at the invitation of Biden, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Friday, and Xi was also invited to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders' Meeting to be held in San Francisco.

During their upcoming meeting, the two leaders will have in-depth communication on issues of strategic, overarching and fundamental importance in shaping China-US relations and major issues concerning world peace and development, according to a statement published on the Foreign Ministry's website late on Friday.

An unidentified senior US official said in a press call in Washington on Thursday evening that the goal will be to "try to take steps that indeed stabilize the relationship between the United States and China, remove some areas of misunderstanding and open up new lines of communication".

Another senior US administration official told reporters that the upcoming meeting is Biden's first interaction with President Xi in a year, and it will be their seventh interaction since the start of the Biden administration. The official said Xi and Biden have a long-standing relationship that began when they were both vice-presidents, and they have known each other for roughly a dozen years.

Xi's visit comes following intensive high-level engagements between Beijing and Washington since May this year, which observers said demonstrates the two countries' intention to steer their relationship back onto the right track and serves as a window of opportunity to manage divergences and prevent bilateral relations from spiraling downward.

In a video speech at the Hong Kong Forum on China-US Relations on Thursday, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng said that under the leadership of the two heads of state, there have been positive signs recently of stabilization in China-US relations.

Both sides have conducted a series of high-level exchanges, initiated dialogue mechanisms, activated exchanges and cooperation, and jointly sent positive signals for stabilizing China-US relations, Xie said, and they believe that maintaining dialogue is beneficial and necessary, and both hope for the swift stabilization and improvement of bilateral relations.

Addressing the same event in a video speech on Thursday, US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said that Washington wants its full trade relationship with China to continue. He said that the US does not seek to decouple the two economies, as decoupling would be "disastrous" and "it would run counter to our national interests".

Regarding Xi's attendance at the 30th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, the statement on the website of the Foreign Ministry said that Xi will deliver an important speech to fully elaborate on China's major propositions on deepening Asia-Pacific cooperation and driving regional and global growth.

"We hope that all parties will remember what brought countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific together in the first place, focus on the region's urgent needs, deepen solidarity and cooperation, deliver on the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040 in an all-round and balanced way, and work for positive outcomes at the meeting, so as to provide new growth impetus for the Asia-Pacific and the wider world, and jointly build an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future," the statement said.