Xi plans to meet with Biden in first foreign trip since pandemic

The Chinese leader, who has remained at home during the pandemic, is organising a visit to Southeast Asia.

Xi Jinping meets the then vice-president Joe Biden at the Great Hall of the People on December 4, 2013 in Beijing. Picture: Getty Images

Chinese officials are making plans for Xi Jinping to visit Southeast Asia and meet face to face with US President Joe Biden in November, according to people familiar with the preparations.

It would mark the Chinese President’s first international trip in three years and his first in-person meeting with Mr Biden since the US leader’s inauguration.

The trip preparations suggest 69-year-old Mr Xi is confident about his fortunes at a twice-a-decade congress to take place in November, where he is expected to break with precedent and claim a third term as Communist Party chief. Officials involved in the preparations said the Chinese leader is first expected to conclude the party congress, then would likely attend a summit of leaders from the G20 nations in Bali on November 15-16.

From there, they said, Mr Xi is expected to travel to the Thai capital of Bangkok to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit two days later.

Part of the preparations, which are still at the early stage and could be changed, is to prepare a possible meeting between Mr Xi and Mr Biden on the sidelines of one of the two summits, the people said.

“China supports Indonesia and Thailand as the hosts of the two conferences, and is willing to work with all parties to promote the conference to achieve positive results,” China’s Foreign Ministry said when asked about a potential trip by Mr Xi.

A White House official said the two leaders discussed a possible face-to-face meeting during their call last month and agreed to have their teams follow up to sort out the specifics.

The last time Mr Xi left China was in January 2020, on a state visit to Myanmar, just days before Chinese health authorities publicly acknowledged the severity of the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan. This year, he briefly travelled to Hong Kong to commemorate the July 1 anniversary of the territory’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

Mr Xi’s absence from the global stage has hobbled China’s communications with other countries, nearly eliminating opportunities for top-level in-person engagements at a time of increasing global concerns over Beijing’s deteriorating relationship with Washington. A heated Chinese response to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit last week to Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as part of China, has sparked nervous chatter in the region about the possibility of outright conflict between the two powers.

If the trip does happen, Mr Xi is expected to make state visits to other regional countries and meet with leaders in person, the people said, part of a broader effort to maintain relations and to rebuild personal connections with them. Such a trip, they added, would also help Mr Xi demonstrate China’s focus on Southeast Asia, where the US has made a push to challenge China’s influence.

Mr Xi’s self-isolation over the past two years has been driven by concerns over Covid-19, according to people familiar with his thinking. His cautious approach toward the virus has left China as the only major world economy still imposing tight restrictions on its people’s movements. Officials have hailed the strategy, described as “dynamic zero-Covid”, as a great success personally attributable to Mr Xi despite considerable costs to the country’s economy.

Some Chinese officials and foreign policy experts say Mr Xi’s first international trip could signal the beginning of a relaxation of China’s pandemic controls to allow the resumption of business trips across international borders at a time when the country’s economic growth is slowing.

If Mr Xi attends the G20 summit, “it means that large-scale exchanges between China and the world will be resumed”, said Wang Huiyao, founder of Beijing-based think tank the Centre for China & Globalisation. “The resumption of high-level international exchanges will drive exchanges between the business community, academia and other communities.”

China in June cut quarantine times for inbound travellers to seven days of hotel quarantine, from 14 days. Mr Xi also received Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Beijing last month, marking the first time he has met in person with a world leader since the Winter Olympics in February.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a meeting with his counterparts from ASEAN countries in Cambodia last week, said the US is determined to “deepen and strengthen” its partnership with nations in the region.

The Wall Street Journal