China under President Xi Jinping has “real problems,” according to US President Joe Biden. Ahead of his private meeting with Jinping on the fringes of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference, which the US is hosting in San Francisco from November 11 to 17, Biden made his comments on Tuesday.

“President Xi is another example of how reestablishing American leadership in the world is taking hold,” stated Biden during a speech at a fundraiser in San Francisco. They truly do have an issue.”

Advertisement

Amidst trade tensions and sanctions, as well as the ongoing dispute between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan, Biden and Xi landed in San Francisco on Tuesday ahead of their first meeting in a year.

The US President had earlier described the meeting as an opportunity to mend relationships that had soured in previous years.

Biden had stated that the US was “not trying to decouple from China” prior to leaving for the conference. Our goal is to improve our friendship with one other.”

Biden further stated that he wanted to “get back on a normal course of corresponding; being able to pick up the phone and talk to one another if there’s a crisis; being able to make sure our (militaries) still have contact with one another.”

“I’m not going to continue to sustain the support for positions where, if we want to invest in China, we have to turn over all our trade secrets,” Biden said, as he warned that the United States was wary of investing in China due to Beijing’s business practices.

The conversations between Biden and Xi are seen to have the potential to reduce tensions between the rival superpowers regarding artificial intelligence, drug trafficking, and military confrontations.

Deep progress on the enormous gaps that separate the world’s economic heavyweights, however, could have to wait until tomorrow, according to news agency Reuters.

Expectations are low since Biden and Xi are expected to discuss issues that the leaders have been unable to settle for a long time, including human rights, the South China Sea, Taiwan, the Israel-Hamas conflict, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and North Korea.