Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden will meet on November 15 on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco.

Here are facts about Xi Jinping's meetings with U.S. leaders since 2013.

Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama meetings (2012-2016)

Xi Jinping as leader of China held his first meeting with President Barack Obama during his visit to the United States on June 7-8, 2013 (in February 2012, Xi Jinping visited the United States as vice chairman of the People's Republic of China and was received at the White House by Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden). The key topics of the talks between the two leaders, organized in an informal atmosphere at Sunnylands (Annenberg family estate) near Palm Springs, California, were cybersecurity, human rights in China, combating climate change, as well as trade and economic relations, mutual investment and cooperation in the energy sector. The two sides said they would continue to cooperate on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Xi Jinping, among other things, urged for "a new type of great power relationship."

From September 22 to 26, 2015. Xi Jinping visited the United States again, on a state visit this time. His talks with Barack Obama on September 25 in Washington were focused on cybersecurity, human rights, and China's territorial claims in the South China Sea. They resulted in the approval of several documents to deepen cooperation in a number of areas, such as nuclear security, preservation of ocean resources, etc. The two sides also agreed to new commitments on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. China expressed its intention to cooperate in combating trade secret theft.

Xi Jinping and Barack Obama have also met numerous times on the sidelines of international negotiating platforms - at the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in September 2013, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Beijing on November 12, 2014, the World Climate Conference in Paris on November 30, 2015, and on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summits in March 2014 in The Hague and March 2016 in Washington, DC. These meetings resulted in a bilateral agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, agreements on a notification mechanism for military exercises, and a joint statement on nuclear security cooperation.

Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump meetings (2017-2021)

On April 6-7, 2017, Xi Jinping visited the United States and met with President Donald Trump for the first time. They focused on trade (the US trade deficit in trade with China increased from $266 billion in 1990 to $346 billion in 2016). Donald Trump stated the need to create equal conditions for access to the markets of the two countries. The topic of the talks was also the North Korean nuclear missile program. The leaders made a commitment to exert "maximum pressure on the DPRK through vigorous application of UN Security Council resolutions." Xi Jinping stressed the unacceptability of the deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defensemobile (THAAD) systems in the Republic of Korea.

On November 8-10, 2017, Donald Trump paid a return state visit to China. The leaders returned to discuss trade cooperation. The meeting resulted in the signing of joint contracts worth over $250 billion, including the construction of infrastructure in Alaska for the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China (to the tune of $43 billion), as well as the purchase of Boeing aircraft by China ($37 billion). The sides also drew up a plan to reduce the imbalance in trade between the two countries.

On December 2, 2018, during talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, the leaders agreed to make efforts to sign a new trade agreement to stop the process of growing bilateral trade contradictions (since March 2018 the United States has imposed higher duties on imported Chinese goods, and Beijing has responded with tit-for-tat measures).

On June 29, 2019, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping held their fourth full-fledged meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. During it, they agreed to resume the interrupted trade talks. The US president also stated that Washington will not impose new duties on Chinese products until the talks are completed. Xi Jinping promised to consider the possibility of increasing imports of agricultural products from the US (the trade agreement was concluded in January 2020, under which China pledged to increase by $200 billion the volume of goods purchased from the US).

Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden meetings (since 2021)

On November 15, 2021, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping held an online meeting. During their talks, which lasted more than three hours, they covered such topics as establishing a strategic stability dialogue, the Taiwan situation, ensuring security in the East and South China Seas, as well as in the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions, fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, and implementing the terms of the trade deal. The two heads of state also exchanged views on the situation in Afghanistan, Iran and the Korean Peninsula. According to a statement of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the two sides described the meeting as "candid, constructive and substantive" and agreed to maintain contacts to put bilateral relations "back on the right track."

On November 14, 2022, Xi Jinping and Joe Biden held a face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. The talks, which lasted three and a half hours, ended without a joint statement and press conference.

According to the White House website, Joe Biden stated that Washington will continue to compete actively with Beijing, but will seek to prevent such competition from escalating into open conflict. According to China Central Television, the Chinese president noted that Beijing is ready to eliminate differences with Washington through dialogue, but this can happen "only on equal terms". He also emphasized that confrontation between the two countries is a disaster for them and for the whole world.

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