The US Government announced that President Joe Biden and Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping will meet
in a virtual summit meeting before the end of the year. The announcement followed the meeting in early
October in Zurich between US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese Politburo member Yang
Jiechi. This indicates that Sullivan and Yang Jiechi likely found issues on which their bosses could reach
agreement. The Straits Times (October 30) said the US government dropping its attempt to prosecute Huawei
executive Meng Wanzhou in September might also create more space for Xi Jinping to be magnanimous at
the summit. It assessed Beijing will have two main goals at the summit: (i) a return to the level of economic,
educational and scientific exchange that prevailed before the bilateral relationship soured and specifically the
restrictions on granting of US visas to members of the Communist Party of China and to Chinese students and
researchers with PRC military connections. (ii) Beijing's demand that Washington ceases using the issues of
Taiwan, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and human rights to "interfere in China's internal affairs". This means Beijing
will insist that Washington stop supporting the Republic of China (ROC) government on Taiwan as Beijing
says the US has taken new steps since the downturn in US-China relations to encourage Taiwan's political
separation from China. The United States main objectives are to get China's assent to what the Biden team
calls "responsible competition" or relationship "guardrails", meaning the two countries pursue their objectives
within the (US-sponsored) rules of international behaviour without taking actions that raise military tensions
and the second US objective is to dissuade China from linking climate change cooperation to other issues.
Third, the Biden administration has elevated the specific issue of Chinese military pressure on Taiwan as a
high-priority concern. "We need to see China stop these actions," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said
recently. The Japan Times (October 29) published a similar assessment of the objectives of the likely Summit.
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