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What We're Watching: US-China virtual summit

What We're Watching: Biden-Xi on Zoom

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (R) speaks next to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during talks at a hotel in Beijing August 19, 2011.

REUTERS/Ng Han Guan/Pool
Carlos Santamaria
By Carlos SantamariaNovember 14, 2021
Carlos Santamaria

Carlos Santamaria is a former senior writer at GZERO.

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Biden-Xi on Zoom. Joe Biden and Xi Jinping will meet face-to-face (virtually) on Monday for the first time since Biden became US president last January. The two have a lot to discuss: trade wars, the 2022 Beijing Olympics (which Biden won't attend, but probably won't boycott), and how to deliver on the joint US-China pledge on climate made at COP26. But the elephant in the Zoom room is Taiwan, an ultra-sensitive issue for China. Xi is seething at the Biden administration's recent public support for the self-governing island, which the Chinese regard as part of their own territory. The Americans insist they are simply doing what they've always done since 1979 — pledging to help Taiwan defend itself. Can Biden and Xi navigate these issues in a calm, cool way? It may help that the two leaders have known each other since over a decade ago, when they were both VPs. With US-China relations getting chillier by the day, the stakes are high.

joe bidenxi jinpingus-china relationstaiwanbeijing olympicscop26us-china ties

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