CHINA´S XI JINPING PLANS TO MEET WITH BIDEN IN FIRST FOREIGN TRIP IN NEARLY THREE YEARS / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

China’s Xi Jinping Plans to Meet With Biden in First Foreign Trip in Nearly Three Years

The Chinese leader, who has remained at home during the pandemic, is organizing a visit to Southeast Asia, say people familiar with the matter

By Keith Zhai

Chinese President Xi Jinping‘s absence from the global stage has hobbled China’s communications with other countries./ PHOTO: SELIM CHTAYTI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Chinese officials are making plans for Xi Jinping to visit Southeast Asia and meet face-to-face with President Biden in November, according to people familiar with the preparations, in what would mark the Chinese leader’s first international trip in nearly three years and his first in-person meeting with Mr. Biden since the American leader’s inauguration.

The trip preparations suggest that the 69-year-old Mr. Xi is confident about his fortunes at a twice-a-decade congress set to take place this fall, where he is expected to break with recent precedent and claim a third term as Communist Party chief. 

Officials involved in the preparations said the Chinese leader is first expected to conclude the party congress, then would likely attend a summit of leaders from the Group of 20 nations on the Indonesian island of Bali on Nov. 15-16.

From there, Mr. Xi is expected to travel to the Thai capital of Bangkok to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit two days later, they said. 

Part of the preparations, which are still at the early stage and could be changed, is to prepare a possible meeting between Messrs. Xi and Biden on the sidelines of one of the two summits, the people said.

“China supports Indonesia and Thailand as the hosts of the two conferences, and is willing to work with all parties to promote the conference to achieve positive results,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a response to The Wall Street Journal’s question on Mr. Xi’s potential trip.

The White House declined to comment. 

A White House official said the two leaders discussed a possible face-to-face meeting during their recent call and agreed to have their teams follow up to sort out the specifics. 

The official declined to provide details on the time or location.

The last time Mr. Xi left China was in January 2020, on a state visit to Myanmar, just days before Chinese health authorities publicly acknowledged the severity of the Covid-19 outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. 

This year, he briefly traveled to Hong Kong to commemorate the July 1 anniversary of the territory’s return to Chinese sovereignty 25 years earlier.

Mr. Xi’s absence from the global stage has hobbled China’s communications with other countries, nearly eliminating opportunities for top-level in-person engagements at a time of increasing global concerns over Beijing’s deteriorating relationship with Washington. 

A heated Chinese response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit last week to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as part of China, has sparked nervous chatter in the region about the possibility of outright conflict between the two powers.

If the trip does happen, Mr. Xi is expected to make state visits to other regional countries and meet with national leaders in person, the people said, part of a broader effort to maintain relations and to rebuild personal connections with them. 

Such a trip, they added, would also help Mr. Xi demonstrate China’s focus on Southeast Asia, where the U.S. has made a push to challenge China’s influence.

Mr. Xi’s self-isolation over the past two years has been driven by concerns over Covid-19, according to people familiar with his thinking. 

His cautious approach toward the virus has left China as the only major world economy still imposing tight restrictions on its people’s movements to suppress the spread of Covid. 

Officials have hailed the strategy, described as “dynamic zero-Covid,” as a great success personally attributable to Mr. Xi despite considerable costs to the country’s economy.

Taiwan has become a key front line in the U.S.-China rivalry, with both countries ramping up military posturing in the region. 

Some Chinese officials and foreign policy experts say Mr. Xi’s first international trip could signal the beginning of a relaxation of China’s pandemic controls to allow the resumption of business trips across international borders at a time when the country’s economic growth is slowing.

If Mr. Xi attends the G-20 summit, “it means that large-scale exchanges between China and the world will be resumed,” said Wang Huiyao, founder of Beijing based think tank Center for China & Globalization. “The resumption of high-level international exchanges will drive exchanges between the business community, academia and other communities.”

China has cut quarantine times for inbound travelers to seven days of hotel quarantine in June, from 14 days previously. Mr. Xi also received Joko Widodo, president of Indonesia, in Beijing last month, marking the first time Mr. Xi has met in person with a world leader since Beijing hosted the Winter Olympics in February.

Southeast Asia finds itself in a delicate diplomatic position as it seeks to balance its heavy reliance on the U.S. for security with many of its countries’ longstanding cultural ties and growing economic links with China. China ranks as the No. 1 trading partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, with billions of dollars of Chinese investment flowing into the region to fund highways, railways, power plants and dams.

To counter China’s influence, Mr. Biden in May hosted the leaders of Southeast Asia’s nations at the White House, where he announced new U.S. investments of about $150 million in the region, covering green-energy infrastructure, security and early disease detection.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a meeting with his counterparts from Asean countries in Cambodia last week, said the U.S. is determined to “deepen and strengthen” its partnership with nations in the region.

Andrew Restuccia contributed to this article.