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The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed today that President Xi Jinping will travel to the United States to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Joe Biden, and to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. "The presidents will hold in-depth talks on strategic issues of fundamental importance in shaping the China-U.S. relationship and on important issues concerning world peace and development," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said.

On the sidelines of the face-to-face between the two leaders, China's foreign ministry stressed that Xi's attendance demonstrates the "great importance" the country attaches to Asia-Pacific cooperation. "With increasing instability and uncertainty in the global economy, there is a broad expectation that Asia-Pacific will continue to be an economic engine leading global growth," he said.

Xi, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, "will deliver an important speech to explain in depth China's main proposals to deepen Asia-Pacific cooperation and harness regional and global growth." "We hope that all parties will remember what united the Asia-Pacific countries and regions in the first place, focus on the urgent needs of the region, deepen solidarity and cooperation ... and work to achieve positive results at the meeting," the Foreign Ministry said.

The meeting between Xi and Biden will be the first since a year ago, when the two leaders met in Bali, Indonesia, for three hours on the sidelines of the annual G20 summit. The meeting had already been advanced by the White House, but the Chinese Foreign Ministry had avoided confirming it in recent days.

The meeting between the leaders of the two powers is another step in the tentative thaw of recent months between Beijing and Washington after a year in which bilateral relations reached one of their lowest points over issues such as the trade war and US sanctions on Chinese companies or the Taiwan question.

Xi's trip to the United States follows recent visits to China by U.S. officials: so far this year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury and Commerce Secretaries Yellen and Gina Raimondo, and Special Envoy for Climate Change John Kerry have visited Beijing.

For his part, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited the U.S. at the end of October and held a meeting with Biden, which was the highest-ranking meeting the president had with a Chinese official in the last year. In early October, Xi said the relationship between Washington and Beijing "will determine the fate of mankind" after meeting the first delegation of U.S. senators to visit China in four years.

  • China
  • United States
  • Joe Biden
  • Xi Jinping