President Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders for the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, summit. The leaders and representatives gathered from Nov. 11 to 17, and the conference was considered a major economic and trade summit for Pacific powers, according to senior United States administration officials.
Meeting with Biden for the first time in a year, Xi reiterated his determination to unify with Taiwan. He denounced what he called futile American efforts at containing China but he also acknowledged that U.S. tech restrictions had taken a toll.
Xi’s message reflected his dueling priorities during his trip, which many had hoped would help inject stability into the relationship between China and the U.S. Xi wants to convince Washington and the world that he is willing to engage with the U.S., in part to lure back foreign investment to bolster China’s economy.
“I am very much against our current relationship with China,” said Tucker Sutton, a senior accounting major. “President Xi has made it very clear that he is still a dictator, and I can not support it.”
Chinese state media leaned into the depiction of Xi as a peer to Biden, showing footage of the two smiling and walking shoulder to shoulder on the grounds of the country estate near San Francisco, where they met.
Other footage showed a dinner for business executives held in Xi’s honor, where luminaries like Tim Cook and Elon Musk could be seen among the throngs of guests arriving to hear the Chinese leader deliver a speech.
Anything that might challenge the narrative of a warm welcome for Xi was omitted. In this fashion, Biden’s comment to a reporter stating that he regarded Xi as a dictator was downplayed in an effort to preserve the cooperation, and the summit was not jeapordized by the actions.
The summit caps a tumultuous year in U.S.—China relations, which reached a low point in February after an errant Chinese surveillance balloon was discovered drifting over the U.S.
“After all the drama between the U.S. and China over the years, I think this summit was a positive thing,” said Toby Gaynes, a junior mass communication major. “At the very least, we can be happy about the U.S.-China climate deal.”
American businesses have grown increasingly leery of investing in China after a series of raids and new restrictions on foreign companies in the name of national security. Ties have also been aggravated by China’s tacit support for Russia’s war in Ukraine as well as increased Chinese military activity around Taiwan.
One threatening issue for the relationship between the two countries is the future of Taiwan, which is claimed as a territory by China. Xi urged Biden to reassure China that it still stands by its stated policy of not supporting Taiwanese independence and advised him to stop supplying Taiwan with weapons. Xi recommended to Biden that the U.S. do so thorough, what he scalled, “concrete actions.”
“I think Biden should not listen to President Xi’s advice,” said Christian Davies, a junior management information systems major. “I really hope we do not cut off our weapons supply to Taiwan, as China cannot be trusted.”
