Biden and Xi meet and shake hands during G20 summit

Monday’s meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping is now underway. It’s the first in-person encounter between the two men since Biden took office – and comes at a crucial time for both leaders.

Having further consolidated his power at last month’s Communist Party Congress, Xi is heading into the meeting as the strongest Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.

Biden, meanwhile, arrived in Asia following a better-than-expected performance by his party in the US midterm elections – with the Democrats projected to keep the Senate in a major victory. Asked Sunday whether the results allowed him to go into Monday’s face-to-face with a stronger hand, Biden voiced confidence.

The stakes for the discussions are high. In a world reeling from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic and the devastation of climate change, the two major powers need to work together more than ever to instill stability – instead of driving deeper tensions along geopolitical fault lines.

But expectations for the meeting are low. Locked in an intensifying great power rivalry, the US and China disagree with each other on just about every major issue, from Taiwan, the war in Ukraine, North Korea, the transfer of technology to the shape of the world order.

Perhaps the only real common ground the two sides share going into the meeting is their limited hopes for what might come out of it.

A senior White House official said Thursday Biden wants to use the talks to “build a floor” for the relationship – in other words, to prevent it from free falling into open conflict.

The main objective of the sit-down is not about reaching agreements or deliverables – the two leaders will not release any joint statement afterward – but about gaining a better understanding of each other’s priorities and reducing misconceptions, according to the US official.

Beijing has sent similar messaging, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Monday saying China hopes the two countries could “properly manage differences, promote mutually beneficial cooperation, avoid misunderstandings and miscalculations.”

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US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have begun bilateral talks on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia Monday evening local time.

Both leaders gave brief opening remarks and exchanged pleasantries in front of media, before the press were swiftly ushered from the room for the start of the high-stakes talks.

On the US side, Biden was accompanied by a team including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, and Ambassador of the United States to the People’s Republic of China Nicholas Burns.

Xi was flanked by officials including Director of the Chinese Communist Party General Office Ding Xuexiang and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping said the world is paying attention to the high-stakes meeting between him and US President Biden.

“Currently the China-US relationship is in such a situation that we all care a lot about it because this is not the fundamental interest of our two countries and peoples, and it is not what the international community expects (from) us,” Xi said in his opening remarks at the meeting.

“As leaders of the two major countries we need to chart the right course for the US China relationship. We need to find the right direction for the bilateral relationship going forward and elevate the relationship,” he added, speaking through a translator.

Xi said he was a ready to have a “candid and in-depth” exchange of views with Biden on issues of strategic importance on China-US relations and on major global and regional issues.

US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have sat down at their tables, flanked by officials on each side.

Biden and Xi both did not wear masks, while the other officials in the room all wear masks.

“I’m committed to keep lines of communication open between you and me personally, but our governments across the board, because our two countries have so much that we have the opportunity to deal with,” said Biden in opening remarks.

“As the leaders of our two nations where share responsibility in my view to show that China and the US can manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming anything even near conflict and find ways to work together on urgent, global issues that require our mutual cooperation.”

US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping shook hands for the first time as leaders in their first in-person meeting since Biden took office nearly two years ago.

Meeting on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit in Bali, Indonesia, the two leaders greeted each other with a firm, long handshake, both smiling, standing in front of a row of US and Chinese flags.

They smiled for cameras and Xi — through a translator — appeared to say, “Good to see you.”

President Joe Biden has departed his hotel to head to the luxury beachside resort on Nusa Dua bay in Bali, where he will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Biden’s most senior advisers are expected to accompany him as part of his official delegation, while Xi is expected to similarly surround himself with top aides, several of whom are likely to be new, owing to the ongoing transition inside Xi’s inner circle.

Biden’s aides have not set a time limit for the meeting, though Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said he expected the talks to run “a couple hours” but could extend longer.

“It’s a meeting on the margins of an international summit. So it’s not itself a kind of summit where they’re coming together in a third country or in Washington and Beijing,” he said. “So, we haven’t set a time limit on the conversation.”

Sullivan said Biden would be “totally straightforward and direct” in the meeting, and expected Xi to be similarly candid in return.

President Biden has been preparing extensively for his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese leader Xi, according to advisors, including running through particular scenarios that could arise during the talks.

Biden reads a large amount before these meetings and speaks at length with his senior advisers and China experts on his team.

“He goes through ‘if this happens, then should we handle it this way,’” an official said.

With Xi in particular, Biden feels a special obligation to come as prepared as possible in the knowledge that US-China ties have an outsized importance on the entire world.

Officials said they expected Biden’s senior-most advisers to accompany him as part of his official delegation in Monday’s meeting.

And the official said they expected Xi to similarly surround himself with top aides, though the US team entered the meeting expecting to see some new faces on the Chinese side amid an ongoing transition inside Xi’s inner circle.

US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will be meeting at The Mulia, a luxury beachside hotel on Nusa Dua bay in Bali.

The sprawling resort, lush with tall palm trees, is where the Chinese delegation is staying during the G20. The Russian delegation and Australian delegation are also staying here.

It’s about a 10-minute drive from the US delegation’s Grand Hyatt hotel.

Footage of the meeting room aired by China’s state broadcaster CCTV shows two long tables underneath rows of chandeliers, with nine seats placed on each side.

A senior US administration official said in a background briefing Monday that Biden’s “closest advisers” will be participating the meeting, with a “handful of trusted interlocutors” on both sides. The official added there will be a number of “new faces” on Xi’s team, who are expected to take up important roles to manage China’s relations with the US.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said he’ll be meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sides of the G20 summit, and he looks forward to a “constructive discussion.”

Australian-Chinese relations have deteriorated rapidly in recent years, following calls from the Australian government for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19, and growing concerns over Beijing’s influence in domestic affairs.

Speaking to journalists after touching down in Bali on Monday, Albanese said Australia will “put forward our own position” during the bilateral meeting with China on Tuesday and was looking forward to having a “constructive discussion with President Xi.”

When questioned regarding the message Australia will convey to China about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Albanese responded: “We have a very clear position, and it’s a consistent position, that there is a need for Russia to withdraw from this aggressive action.” 

He also addressed the topic of China’s sanctions on Australian exports, including beef, barley, wine, and rock lobster, stressing that Australia will enter the discussion “with goodwill” with “no preconditions.” 

Some context: The expected sit-down comes amid signals of an easing of tensions in the relationship, and follows a meeting between Albanese and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday during a weekend of meetings linked to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit.

During the meeting, Li said China was ready “to meet Australia halfway,” after a “difficult patch” for Chinese Australian relations, according to Chinese official state news agency Xinhua News Agency.