Chinese President Xi Jinping leaves Beijing for summit with Joe Biden: state media

U.S. President Joe Biden with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Chinese President Xi Jinping left Beijing on November 14, state media reported, on his way to San Francisco where he will hold highly anticipated talks with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden.

“On the evening of November 14, President Xi Jinping left Beijing on a special plane. At the invitation of United States President Biden, he will go to San Francisco for the China-U.S. presidents’ meeting,” state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The two leaders will meet on the sidelines of the APEC summit in the Californian city, their first encounter in a year despite trade tensions, sanctions, and the question of Taiwan feeding quarrels between the world’s largest economies.

Positive momentum from November 2022 talks between Xi and Biden in Bali was derailed when the United States shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon, delaying a planned visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Since then, a flurry of high-level diplomacy, including Blinken’s eventual trip to Beijing in June, has signalled ambitions on both sides to mend ties.

China’s foreign ministry said Monday that this leaders’ summit would involve “in-depth communication on strategic, general and directional issues concerning China-US relations, as well as major issues concerning global peace and development”.