Biden to meet China's Xi on November 14 for Taiwan, Russia talks

United States President Joe Biden will meet on November 14 with China's President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of next week’s Group of 20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia

President Joe Biden will meet Monday with President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of next week’s Group of 20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, a face-to-face meeting that comes amid increasingly strained U.S.-China relations, the White House announced Thursday.

It will be the first in-person meeting between the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies since Mr. Biden became president in January 2021 and comes weeks after Mr. Xi was awarded a norm-breaking third, five-year term as the Chinese Communist Party leader during the party’s national congress.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement the leaders will meet to “discuss efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication between” the two countries and to "responsibly manage competition and work together where our interests align, especially on transnational challenges that affect the international community.”

The White House has been working with Chinese officials over the last several weeks to arrange the meeting. Mr. Biden on Wednesday told reporters that he intended to discuss with Mr. Xi growing tensions between Washington and Beijing over the self-ruled island of Taiwan, trade policies, Beijing’s relationship with Russia and more.

“What I want to do with him when we talk is lay out what each of our red lines are and understand what he believes to be in the critical national interests of China, what I know to be the critical interests of the United States,” Mr. Biden said. “And determine whether or not they conflict with one another.”

A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the summit, sought to downplay expectations for the meeting , telling reporters on Thursday that there was no joint communique or deliverables anticipated from the sit-down. Rather, the official said, Mr. Biden aimed to build a “floor for the relationship.”

Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi traveled together in the U.S. and China in 2011 and 2012 when both leaders were serving as their respective countries' vice presidents, and they have held five phone or video calls since Mr. Biden became President in January 2021. But the U.S.-China relationship has become far more complicated since those getting-to-know-you talks in Washington and on the Tibetan plateau a decade ago.