Joe Biden and Xi Jinping will try to lower tension

American and Chinese leaders meet before the G20 summit, in Bali, with Taiwan as the main object of litigation.

by Frédéric Lemaître (Beijing, correspondent) and Piotr Smolar (Washington, correspondent)

“Manage competition”: the expression reflects all the strategy of the United States vis-à-vis China. She was again employed by the National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on November 10. The latter mentioned in front of the press the framework in which Joe Biden, the American president, and Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, must meet on Monday, November 14, in Bali (Indonesia), on the sidelines of the G20 country.

It will be the first head-to-head interview between the presidents since the election of the American leader. But the frequency of their conversations – five since January 2021 – indicates the importance of bilateral dialogue, despite the deep mutual distrust and the divergent interests that characterize the Sino -American relationships. Everyone fears the other, lends him hidden intentions, believes in the weaknesses of the opposing model.

In its national security strategy, published on October 12, the American administration presented China as “the only competitor who intends to reformat the international order”. On November 9, the day after the mid-term elections, Joe Biden said that each of the two men was going to exhibit his “red lines” in all files. No concrete advance or joint press release are expected. For his part, Beijing has remained evasive about this meeting presented as an “American proposal”. “The world needs to know how the two most important countries can coexist and cooperate to manage global challenges,” writes China Daily.

Taiwanese litigation

Following the visit in early August of the president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, in Taiwan, China had broken up certain channels of dialogue with the United States, especially on the climate and on military issues. But, at the highest level, these contacts resumed very quickly to prepare the tête-à-tête. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and his counterpart, Wang Yi, met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 23. A week later, they had a new telephone interview. On October 28, Wang Yi welcomed the new American ambassador to Beijing, Nicolas Burns.

Since the end of the 20 Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which granted him a third term as secretary general, in October, Xi Jinping has never ceased to insist on the need to be faithful to Marxism and the thought of Mao. “Modernization is not westernization,” he observed in early November in Beijing. The floating surrounding the final results of the elections in the United States, due to the local particularities of the counting, allows official propaganda to detect a vulnerability. “The American system is sick,” claims the Global Times. On the other hand, China reacted little after the unprecedented limitation of advanced electronic flea exports, decided by the White House in October. A size decision in the commercial battle between the two countries and a blow for China.

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