Following hours of negotiations with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and senior U.S. diplomats in Washington, U.S. officials announced on Friday that the U.S. and China had decided to collaborate towards the anticipated summit between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping next month.
Veteran diplomat Wang Yi met with Biden for an hour during the first Chinese foreign minister’s visit to Washington since 2018. The White House characterised the meetings as a “good opportunity” to maintain open lines of communication between the two geopolitical foes with significant policy differences.
U.S. officials reported that Wang spent nine hours in total in meetings over two days with U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, characterising these discussions as “candid and in-depth”.
Washington’s primary concerns were brought up by Biden’s senior aides: the necessity of reestablishing military-to-military relations between the two nations; Beijing’s conduct in the East and South China Seas; Taiwan; human rights; the flow of precursors to fentanyl; and the instances of American detainees in China, according to U.S. officials.
Additionally, Blinken and Wang had “frank exchanges” regarding the developing crisis in the Middle East.
The main area that seemed to be making progress was towards the anticipated gathering of Biden and Xi in San Francisco, California, next month, which is part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference.
