Joe Biden will make clear that the US is not seeking a conflict with Beijing during his meeting with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping in Bali, but will press Washington’s commitment to maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan strait, according to senior White House officials.
The summit is the leaders’ first face-to-face meeting since Biden took office in January 2021. It will take place on the Indonesian island on Monday and comes amid rising tensions over Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that China claims as its territory and has vowed to “reunify”, by force if necessary.
Biden will lay out US priorities on China’s “provocative” military actions near Taiwan, one of the officials said, adding that the main objective of the summit was to “reduce misunderstanding and misperceptions and put in place steps that we believe will establish the rules of the road”.
Increased cooperation would not necessarily lead to substantive progress on “thornier issues” such as Taiwan, the official said. The goal is to “find ways to communicate” on those tougher areas, “because the only thing worse than … having contentious conversations is not having conversations at all”.
Earlier on Monday, Biden announced investments in Indonesia following a summit with the country’s president, Joko Widodo. Describing Indonesia as a “critical partner”, Biden also said the two countries would collaborate to “protect our people” from Covid-19.
The investments span areas such as the climate emergency and food security, and include a $2.5bn carbon capture agreement between ExxonMobil and the Indonesian state-owned energy company Pertamina.
The partnership “will enable key industry sectors to decarbonise”, a White House statement said, adding that it would lower carbon emissions, ensure economic opportunities for Indonesian workers and help Indonesia achieve its net-zero ambitions in 2060 or sooner.
Biden and Xi, whose last discussion was by phone in September, are not expected to make a diplomatic breakthrough, but will instead attempt to “reset” the relationship between Washington and Beijing.
“We are in competition. President Biden embraces that but he wants to make sure that that competition is bounded, that we build guardrails, that we have clear rules of the road and that we do all of that to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict,” a senior White House official said.
The official, one of two who briefed reporters on Monday morning, said Biden’s approach had the backing of “allies and partners” in the region, including key allies Japan and South Korea. “There is broad support for our determination to build the floor under the relationship to increase communications responsibly.”
Another senior official said: “Our view is that lines of communication should be open. I expect that’s something that President Biden will make pretty clear to President Xi today: not only to open channels, but to empower key officials on both sides to really follow up on some of the meat of what the presidents are going to be talking about.”
China drew widespread criticism in August after it held military drills off the coast of Taiwan in an angry response to a highly controversial visit to the island by Nancy Pelosi, the US House speaker. In September, Biden said US forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion – his most explicit statement on the issue yet – drawing another angry response from Beijing.
Relations between the superpowers have sunk to their lowest in decades, marred by growing tensions over issues ranging from Hong Kong and Taiwan to the South China Sea, coercive trade practices and US restrictions on Chinese technology.
Biden, buoyed by the military breakthrough in Ukraine and Democrat retention of the US Senate, said ahead of the summit that he and Xi would lay out “red lines” in the their relationship.
But they will not discuss specifics, according to the White House officials, and are not due to release a joint statement. Biden is expected to speak to reporters in Bali after the meeting, which could last more than two hours, but it is not clear if he will hold a full news conference.
Monday’s meeting is the result of dozens of hours of discussions between US and Chinese officials over the past couple of months. Biden has held five phone and video calls with Xi since the beginning of 2021, but Monday’s talks will be their first in person since 2017, when Biden was vice-president to Barack Obama. The last US president Xi met in person was Donald Trump, in 2019.
“I know Xi Jinping, he knows me,” Biden said at the weekend, adding that they had always had “straightforward discussions”.
