Xi: ‘Planet Earth is big enough’ for both US and China to succeed
“The China-US relationship, which is the most important bilateral relationship in the world, should be perceived and envisioned in a broad context of the accelerating global transformations,” Xi Jinping told Joe Biden.
The China-US relationship has never been smooth sailing over the past 50 years or more, and it always faces problems of one kind or another. Yet it has kept moving forward amid twists and turns.
For two large countries like China and the United States, turning their back on each other is not an option …
Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed, and one country’s success is an opportunity for the other.
Key events
Thought there has been no official readout of Joe Biden and Xi Jinping’s meeting, which ended recently and lasted several hours, some details are beginning to emerge via Reuters.
During their talk, the Chinese president called on the US to stop arming Taiwan and to support China’s “reunification” with the island, and said that he hopes the US president will lift unilateral sanctions that impact China.
Biden left the estate where the meeting was held and raised two thumbs up to reporters and said the the talks with Xi went “well”.
We’re about 30 minutes out from Biden’s press conference in San Francisco.
As Joe Biden heads from his meeting with Xi Jinping in Woodside, a small California town, to San Francisco, the White House tweeted that the US president and Chinese president had a “candid and constructive” conversation on a range of issues including international diplomacy.
Biden is scheduled to give a press conference from the Apec summit in about an hour.
Today in Woodside, California President Biden held a Summit with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China. The two leaders held a candid and constructive discussion on a range of bilateral and global issues and exchanged views on areas of difference. pic.twitter.com/IBqk88ZnHm
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 15, 2023
During the meeting at the Filoli estate, 30 miles south of San Francisco, Xi Jinping called the partnership between the US and China “the most important bilateral relationship in the world”, and said that he and Joe Biden “shoulder heavy responsibilities for the two peoples, for the world and for history”. Xi added:
For two large countries like China and the United States, turning their back on each other is not an option,. It is unrealistic for one side to remodel the other, and conflict and confrontation has unbearable consequences for both sides.
Singer Gwen Stefani is slated to be the headline performer at Joe Biden’s Apec reception this evening, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. In January, the pop singer fell into hot water when she said in an Allure interview: “My God, I’m Japanese and I didn’t know it.” (Stefani is not Japanese.)
Paul Osaki, the executive director of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, told the Chronicle:
I hope her appearance at Apec is not related to her Harujuku Girls era or feelings about being Japanese. If they want representation of the Japanese culture at the reception, there are several Japanese cultural performing arts groups that are more authentic, not stereotypical and of actual Japanese ancestry.
Read the rest of the Chronicle’s coverage here.
The lead-up to Xi Jinping’s first visit to the US since 2017 has been filled with meticulous planning including cleanups of San Francisco homeless encampments and pre-determined camera angles to capture the meeting of the two heads of state and specific seating arrangements, NBC News reports.
‘There is no detail too small,’ Kurt Campbell, the White House coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, told the outlet.
Any meeting between two heads of state involves a degree of pomp and circumstance, but President Joe Biden’s long-awaited sit-down with Xi on Wednesday is the product of a painstaking process to accommodate China’s many requests. The behind-the-scenes effort is a sign of Beijing’s anxiety over the optics that could result from Xi’s first visit to the US in six years.
Overall, China is looking for Xi’s trip to California to be seen as a ‘grand visit,’ officials said.
Read more about the visit preparation here.
ABC’s senior White House correspondent Selina Wang reports that following Joe Biden and Xi Jinping’s opening remarks, she asked Xi in Mandarin: “Do you trust Biden?”
He took out his translation earpiece to hear my question, looked at me, but didn’t respond,” Wang tweeted.
In the room during Biden-Xi meeting.
After their opening remarks, I asked Xi Jinping in mandarin: “do you trust Biden?”
He took out his translation earpiece to hear my question, looked at me, but didn’t respond pic.twitter.com/nYVqkfxUuV— Selina Wang (@selinawangtv) November 15, 2023
Here is some color from the New York Times on the lush Filoli estate where Joe Biden and Xi Jinping are meeting (the location was largely kept a secret until a day before the bilateral):
The Filoli estate, a grand house and garden on 654 acres of rolling green grounds along the California coast, has been a supporting character in the 1980s television drama ‘Dynasty’ and the 2001 romantic comedy ‘The Wedding Planner.’ It has been the venue for top-dollar nuptials of Facebook executives, and the public can tour the gardens.
Just not on Wednesday.
Top aides to President Biden have worked with Chinese officials for weeks to ensure that this manicured setting would be the perfect backdrop to host a diplomatic summit between Mr Biden and President Xi Jinping of China – two men who share a deep skepticism of each other, but also a mutual belief that their countries must avoid allowing their diplomatic and military interactions to deteriorate from fierce competition into outright conflict …
The site was appealing for a few reasons. It is set among the hills, one of the more isolated spots in a densely populated corner of California. The White House kept the location of the meeting secret until a day before, presumably to keep protesters from surrounding the venue. None were visible at the gates on Wednesday morning as Mr. Biden’s motorcade approached the locale, but some could be seen along the route from San Francisco.
Filoli is a giant estate amid some of the most expensive real estate in the country, built in the early 20th century by a family that made its fortune in the California gold boom and wanted a retreat not far from San Francisco. William Bowers Bourn II, the original owner of the home, decided on the name ‘Filoli’ by mixing together the first few letters of his personal motto: ‘Fight for a just cause. Love your Fellow Man. Live a Good Life.’
Here are images coming through the newswires of Joe Biden greeting Xi Jinping in San Francisco in their first face-to-face meeting in a year:
Joe Biden and Xi Jinping sit down for first face-to-face meeting in a year
Joe Biden has welcomed Xi Jinping to San Francisco, where the two leaders are meeting face-to-face for the first time in a year.
As Xi stepped out of his bulletproof Hongqi sedan, Biden greeted the smiling Chinese president with a handshake and said: “Welcome.”
The two then proceeded to pose briefly for photos before heading into their meeting hall, where they were greeted by US officials including the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, the US’s special climate envoy, John Kerry, and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.
Addressing Xi, Biden said:
Mr President, we’ve known each other for a long time. We haven’t always agreed, which [does] not surprise anyone but our meetings have always been candid, straightforward and useful … I value our conversation because I think it’s paramount that you and I understand each other clearly, leader to leader with no misconceptions or miscommunication …
We have to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict. And we also have to manage it responsibly … That’s what the United States wants and what we intend to do … I also believe it’s what the world wants for both of us …
We also have the responsibility to our people and the world to work together when we see it in our interest to do so. Critical global challenges we face, from climate change to counter-narcotics to artificial intelligence, demand our joint efforts.
Addressing Biden, Xi said:
The China-US relationship, which is the most important bilateral relationship in the world, should be perceived and envisioned in a broad context of the accelerating global transformations … It should develop in a way that benefits our two peoples and fulfils our responsibility for human progress.
The China-US relationship has never been smooth sailing over the past 50 years or more, and it always faces problems of one kind or another. Yet it has kept moving forward amid twists and turns. For two large countries like China and the United States, turning their back on each other is not an option …
Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed … As long as [China and the US] respect each other, co-exist in peace and pursue win-win cooperation, they will be fully capable of rising above differences and find the right way for the two major countries to get along with each other.
Xi: ‘Planet Earth is big enough’ for both US and China to succeed
“The China-US relationship, which is the most important bilateral relationship in the world, should be perceived and envisioned in a broad context of the accelerating global transformations,” Xi Jinping told Joe Biden.
The China-US relationship has never been smooth sailing over the past 50 years or more, and it always faces problems of one kind or another. Yet it has kept moving forward amid twists and turns.
For two large countries like China and the United States, turning their back on each other is not an option …
Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed, and one country’s success is an opportunity for the other.
Biden highlights ‘candid, straightforward and useful’ US-China meetings
“There’s no substitute to face-to-face discussions,” Joe Biden told Xi Jinping.
Mr. President, we have known each other for a long time. We haven’t always agreed … but our meetings have always been candid, straightforward and useful.
We have to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict. And we also have to manage it responsibly … and work together when we see it in our interest to do so.
Biden went on to mention “critical global challenges”, including climate change, narcotics and artificial intelligence, that the US seeks to address with China.