Biden had once hoped for an in-person summit with Xi, but the Chinese leader hasn’t left China in nearly two years.
The last time Biden and Xi spoke was in September, in a phone call that lasted roughly 90 minutes.
The two nations agreed to hold a virtual summit last month during an extended, six-hour meeting between Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi. The two men met in Switzerland for talks touching on areas of cooperation and disagreement as tensions between their two countries have spiked over Taiwan.
The official said that the tenor of that meeting was far removed from the fiery public exchange Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken had with Yang and State Councilor Wang Yi at a March meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. After that encounter, Chinese officials accused the US delegation of being “condescending” in tone, while a US official said the Chinese officials had seemed “intent on grandstanding.”
Source : Nbcnewyork