Xi Jinping and Joe Biden arrive for key San Francisco summit

US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have arrived in San Francisco on the eve of an eagerly awaited meeting.

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in San Francisco. Picture: AFP

US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) on the eve of an eagerly awaited meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies.

The pair will huddle on the sidelines of the APEC summit in California for their first encounter in a year as trade tensions, sanctions and the question of Taiwan have fuelled quarrels between Washington and Beijing.

Mr Biden characterised the meeting as a chance to right ties that have floundered in recent years. “We’re not trying to decouple from China. What we’re trying to do is change the relationship for the better,” Mr Biden said at the White House before heading to San Francisco.

Asked what he hoped to achieve at the meeting, he said he wanted “to get back on a normal course of corresponding; being able to pick up the phone and talk to one another if there’s a crisis; being able to make sure our (militaries) still have contact with one another.” But Mr Biden also warned that the US was wary of investing in China due to Beijing’s business practices.

“I’m not going to continue to sustain the support for positions where if we want to invest in China, we have to turn over all our trade secrets,” he said.

The two presidents are expected to meet for several hours on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.

The forum brings together 21 economies, which together account for about 60 per cent of the world economy. They are both also expected to meet business leaders, and hold a number of other bilateral meetings.

Positive momentum from November 2022 talks between Mr Xi and Mr Biden in Bali was derailed when the US shot down what it said was a Chinese spy balloon, delaying a planned visit to Beijing by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Since then, a flurry of high-level diplomacy, including Mr Blinken’s eventual trip to China in June, has signalled a willingness on both sides to mend ties.

Joe Biden is met at the airport by California Governor Gavin Newsom and his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Picture: Getty Images

Asked about Beijing’s expectations for the summit, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry was vague, mentioning “in-depth communication” and “major issues concerning world peace.” China routinely warns it will not budge on issues it considers “red lines,” such as Taiwan, a liberal democracy that Beijing claims as its own territory, and its expansion into the South China Sea.

But Washington and Beijing have recently made some progress on trade and economic relations, and climate change talks.

The US and its Western allies once viewed emerging China as a friend in waiting, believing that as it became wealthier, it would become more liberal and fit in with the US-dominated global order.

But over the last decade that view has all but disappeared in Western capitals as the openness that heralded its hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games has faded.

Beijing has become more authoritarian under Mr Xi, and has increasingly begun to throw its weight around on the international stage, including spending hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure development in third countries as part of its Belt and Road initiative.

At the same time, making nice with China has fallen out of favour in Washington, as domestic politics have taken on an increasingly protectionist bent.

That tendency accelerated under former president Donald Trump, who delighted his base by imposing punitive sanctions on Chinese imports in what he said was a bid to re-shore American manufacturing.

But the mood music has sweetened slightly in recent months, and Mr Biden said on Tuesday a less confrontational relationship with China would benefit both sides.

“If in fact the Chinese people, who are in trouble right now economically, if the average homeowner, if the average citizen in China, was able to have a decent paying job — that benefits them, and benefits all of us,” he said.

Mr Xi will hold a dinner with American business leaders, and is expected to push for a relaxation of US trade curbs in his talks with Mr Biden.

AFP