Joe Biden plans meeting with Xi Jinping in San Francisco next month: Report

The White House is making plans for a face-to-face meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in San Francisco next month.

As the two countries seek to stabilise troubled relations, the Washington Post reported on Thursday (local time). Ties between the world’s two largest economies have been strained in recent years due to a number of issues including Taiwan, the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, allegations of spying, human rights issues and trade tariffs, among others.

The newspaper, which cited senior unidentified US officials, quoted one of them as saying the possibility of a meeting was “pretty firm”.

“We are beginning the process” of planning, the official was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not comment specifically on the newspaper report. A spokesperson of the embassy said, in an emailed statement, that the two countries remained in communication and needed to expand “good faith” cooperation. The White House did not have an immediate comment.

The meeting would follow other high-level engagements between the two countries in recent months that have seen visits from US officials to China like Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in July and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in August.

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