Biden team works on setting up meeting with China’s Xi as he secures third term

The US won’t change its stance toward China as a result of Xi Jinping seizing more power in a key Communist Party congress, with advisers still trying to set up a meeting between President Joe Biden and the Chinese leader, US officials said.

The conclusion of the 20th Communist Party congress last week, in which Xi installed allies in top posts and paved the way for a third five-year term, “doesn’t change our approach” to China, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday. That strategy includes competing on security matters while cooperating wherever possible on global issues with the People’s Republic of China.

“We do note the conclusion of the 20th Party congress,” Price told a briefing. “And we would welcome cooperation of the PRC where our interests align, and that includes cooperation on climate change and on global health, counter narcotics, non-proliferation as well.”

Earlier on Monday, John Kirby, a spokesman for Biden’s National Security Council, said the US would “keep the lines of communication open, and that includes at the leader level.” He said teams are still working through a possible meeting when world leaders gather at a Group of 20 meeting in Bali next month, in what would be Biden’s first sitdown as president with Xi.

Xi filled China’s most powerful bodies with close allies while securing a precedent-breaking third term, shifting away from the collective leadership model that underpinned the nation’s rise to become the world’s second-biggest economy. US officials expected Xi to double down on isolationist policies and anticipated him to emerge from the party gathering emboldened and more aggressive toward the US and other nations, people familiar with the Biden administration’s thinking said.

The Chinese leader, 69, installed six trusted associates alongside him on the Politburo’s supreme Standing Committee on Sunday, putting his former chief of staff, Li Qiang, in line to become the country’s premier. Those associated with other camps failed to secure any positions of power, with Vice Premier Hu Chunhua kept off the broader 24-member Politburo altogether.

The move effectively puts a group of Xi’s loyal aides in key positions throughout the government, tearing down divisions between party and state instituted following Mao Zedong’s chaotic rule that ended with his death in 1976.

A visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August led to a further deterioration of relations. Beijing responded with a series of military drills and missile launches, which the US and its allies condemned.

“It’s still unfortunate that the Chinese have shut down those working-level, bilateral contacts,” Kirby said.

“For our part, we continue to believe there’s no reason for there to be a move on Taiwan or any conflict whatsoever because nothing has changed about our approach,” he added.

The developments in Beijing are the latest illustration of a growing emphasis on ideology over pragmatism in Chinese policy-making, with fewer voices at the top to question Xi’s policies of Covid Zero, tighter control over the private sector and a more assertive foreign policy. They also affirmed China’s shift in a more conservative direction, without a single woman on the Politburo for the first time in a quarter century.