Biden plans meeting with Chinese President Xi in November

(Patria) - The White House is making plans for a face-to-face meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco next month, as the two countries seek to stabilise their troubled relations, the Washington Post reported.

Relations between the world's two largest economies have been strained in recent years over numerous issues including Taiwan, the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, allegations of espionage, human rights issues, trade tariffs and other matters, Reuters reports.

The newspaper, citing senior unnamed US officials, said the possibility of the meeting is "quite solid."

The meeting will follow high-level talks between the two countries in recent months, during which US officials visited China, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in July, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in August.

Recently, Blinken met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng in New York, and
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Chinese Foreign Minister
Wang Yi in Malta.

The last meeting between Biden and Xi was on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia in November 2022, which was their first in-person meeting since Biden became president. They had previously held five phone and video conference calls after Biden took office.

China's top security agency hinted last month that any meeting between Xi and Biden would depend on whether the United States "shows sufficient sincerity." San Francisco will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November, which Xi could attend; he recently skipped the G20 summit in New Delhi, which Biden attended.