The President of the United States, Joe Biden, received this Friday by surprise the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, at the White House, which represents the highest-ranking meeting that the president has had with a Chinese official in the last year. .
The meeting, which was not on Biden's agenda, emulates the one that the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, also had by surprise with the president of China, Xi Jinping, on his trip to Beijing last June.
According to a brief statement from the White House, Biden told Wang that "the United States and China must manage their rivalry and relationship responsibly, with open lines of communication" and "work together to address global challenges." Likewise, the American president conveyed his condolences for the death of former Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, who died this Friday at the age of 68 from a heart attack.
The meeting lasted about an hour and Biden expressed his desire to meet again with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as John Kirby, one of the White House spokespersons, revealed in a subsequent telephone press conference.
Biden received the Chinese Foreign Minister when he visited the White House to meet with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, after holding two days of meetings with Blinken at the State Department.
Washington has been trying to smooth things over with Beijing for months, a need that now becomes even more urgent given the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Specifically, the United States wants China to use its influence over Iran to deter the Persian country from entering the war and avoid a regional conflict.
The meetings in Washington between Blinken and Wang have also served to prepare for a possible meeting between Biden and Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), which will be held in mid-November in San Francisco.
The White House has been preparing this meeting for weeks, which has not yet been officially confirmed and which would serve to stage the strategy of rapprochement between both governments that began months ago with Blinken's visit to Beijing.
In a call with journalists after the meeting between Biden and Wang, US government officials explained that, if the meeting between the two leaders finally takes place in San Francisco, the two leaders will focus more on the importance of maintaining open channels of communication that in seeking concrete agreements.
However, they assured that one of the Administration's highest priorities is to reestablish cooperation between the security forces of both countries to fight against trafficking in fentanyl precursors, so the issue would surely be part of the agenda.
The officials clarified that while the White House is working on the idea of a meeting between the two leaders, it is up to China to announce Xi's travel plans.
Biden and Xi last met in November last year during the G20 in Bali (Indonesia), where they agreed to maintain regular contacts after years of deterioration in the bilateral relationship due to the trade war between both countries, the situation in Taiwan or the military in the South China Sea.
But those efforts were blown up last February, when Washington accused Beijing of having sent an alleged Chinese spy balloon into US airspace. The relationship did not begin to improve until Blinken's trip to Beijing in June, which was followed by visits from other US officials such as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
The governor of California, Democrat Gavin Newsom, met this Wednesday with Xi Jinping in Beijing. Xi's last trip to the United States was in April 2017 when he met with then-President Donald Trump (2017-2021) in Florida.
