China (Washington Insider Magazine) -President Joe Biden is set to meet with the president of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Xi Jinping. The summit between the two world leaders will be held virtually and is expected to take place before the end of the calendar year. The news comes after a successful meeting between Chinese and U.S. diplomats on October 6th. This will be the first official meeting between the two presidents since the beginning of the Joe Biden’s term in January.
The U.S.-China relationship has been particularly fraught since the trade war between the two country’s was initiated by the Trump administration. While the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration are still in effect, Biden’s U.S. trade negotiator calls for a “recoupling” of the two nations suggesting greater cooperation between the two world powers.
As the two leaders plan to meet, tensions in the South China Sea rise after Chinese military maneuvers that encompassed 56 fighter planes flying within Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Meanwhile, it was revealed shortly after that the United States had placed a special contingent of Marines in Taiwan to train Taiwanese troops. U.S. troops have not been permanently stationed in Taiwan since the U.S. formalized diplomatic relations with the PRC in 1979.
President Biden has reassured the Chinese that the U.S. plans to continue to abide by the “Taiwan Agreement”. While there is no official policy called the “Taiwan Agreement”, the implication of Biden’s statement is the U.S. commitment to maintaining the status quo in the Taiwan relationship, where the U.S. formally recognizing Beijing, and not Taipei. Within this understood framework, the United States would come to the defense of Taiwan in the event of military action from China, but otherwise maintains no diplomatic relationship with Taipei.
After a U.S. nuclear submarine had an accident in the South China Sea in early October, the Chinese foreign ministry is demanding answers around the incident. China fears nuclear contamination, claiming the lack of information provided by the U.S. military was “irresponsible”. Moreover, the Chinese official blamed the freedom of navigation act for the accident: “I also want to emphasize that for some time the US side has been acting, making waves in the SCS under the banner freedom of navigation. This is the source of this accident, severely threatening and imposing serious risks to the regional peace and stability” he told reporters.
The Biden administration describes their China strategy as “strategic competition”, acknowledging the tensions between the two countries, all while distancing the approach from the previous Trump administration’s hawkish standpoint. The upcoming meeting will elaborate on what “strategic competition” will mean for the two countries.
Amidst present tensions in the South China Sea, the upcoming meeting between the two presidents will be pivotal in determining the state of relations for the next four years. China-watchers and pundits will be sure to analyze and report on the interactions between the leaders of the two most powerful economies in the world.