The White House says President Joe Biden will meet virtually with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Nov. 15.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed plans for the meeting to reporters Nov. 12, saying the leaders would discuss ways to responsibly manage competition between the countries, as well working together where interests align.
But Psaki stressed the meeting is not expected to come with any big announcements.
“I wouldn’t set the expectation that this is meant to have major deliverables, or outcomes,” she said.
Concerns continue to be raised about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) treatment of China’s Uyghur Muslim population in the country’s western Xinjiang region.
The Biden administration formally condemned China’s abuse of the Uyghurs as genocide in a report released in March.
And earlier this week, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum released a report saying it has compiled evidence of increasing CCP repression against the Uyghurs.
Biden and his administration have also raised concerns about China’s attempts to conceal information related to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as China’s growing military capabilities and aggressive actions taken in the Indo-Pacific region.
“There will be a broad range of topics that will be discussed and the president is certainly not going to hold back on areas where he is concerned,” Psaki said of the forthcoming meeting.
Biden and Xi last spoke on Sept. 9.
White House Officials said that 90-minute conversation focused on economic issues, climate change and COVID-19.
Monday’s meeting was initially set up by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi, who agreed the two leaders would meet before the year’s end.
U.S. officials had wanted Biden to meet Xi on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Rome two weeks ago, but Xi did not attend the event and has not traveled outside of China since the start of the pandemic.
Biden criticized Xi’s decision to skip the event calling it “a big mistake” and saying, “the rest of the world is going to look to China and say, what value added have they provided.”
But the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest emitters of carbon dioxide, did manage to come together to announce the framework of a joint agreement related to Climate Change at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.
Both Biden and Xi also took part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) virtual meeting Nov. 10, where they covered topics including efforts to end the pandemic and global economic recovery.
