- Biden will meet with Chinese President Xi in San Francisco on Wednesday
- He will also meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
- He will also attend a campaign fundraiser and faces a possible government shutdown in his home country
President Joe Biden headed to San Francisco on Tuesday to prepare for a high-profile meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as he faced a possible government shutdown in Washington, D.C.
Shortly before leaving the White House, he spoke briefly about the tense relationship between the US and China.
He called for them to return to a ‘normal way of corresponding’.
“We are not trying to separate ourselves from China. What we are trying to do is change the relationship for the better,” he said.
Biden’s meeting on Wednesday with Xi is the main event of his four-day visit to San Francisco, where leaders of the 21 economies that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum are gathering for their annual summit.
Additionally, Biden has been urged to meet San Francisco’s homeless and see the city’s misery firsthand while he is in the city by the bay. Social rights advocates have criticized the recent cleanup of San Francisco’s streets, saying it is only meant to avoid embarrassing the country when all the foreign leaders are in town.
But while issues surrounding the Asia-Pacific region are on the table, Biden will also work to prevent the war between Israel and Hamas from spiraling into a broader conflict and to convince Republican lawmakers to continue spending billions more on the costly Ukrainian efforts to fend off Russia’s nearly 21-year war. month old invasion.
President Joe Biden boarded Air Force One to head to San Francisco for his high-stakes meeting with Xi Jinping
“President Biden will do much more than just meet with President Xi in the coming week,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday.
He added that Biden would put forward his economic vision for the region, advocate that the US is “the very preeminent engine” for sustainable economic growth in the Asia-Pacific, and view the region as crucial to US economic grow.
While in San Francisco, Biden will also attend a fundraiser for his re-election on Tuesday evening. He will also hold a bilateral meeting with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to avoid a government shutdown faces a key vote Tuesday as he tries to overcome stiff opposition from his own Republicans but may gain some support from Democrats .
Johnson is trying to rally Republican support for a two-step “clean” continuing resolution, or “CR,” that would keep federal funding levels unchanged until early next year.
Biden holds talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping
Biden is hosting the APEC summit in San Francisco this week
The president is facing election challenges during his campaign and political problems in Washington, with government funding set to expire on Friday and Republicans in the House of Representatives preparing for a “stepped” extension of funding in the near term.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Congress’ top Democrat, cautiously welcomed the proposal Monday.
“For now, I’m glad that Chairman Johnson appears to be moving in our direction by advancing a CR that does not include the highly partisan cuts that Democrats have warned about,” Schumer said.
But Republican hardliners in the House of Representatives are threatening to use procedural roadblocks to stop the bill from progressing.
And if it passes both chambers of Congress, Biden would still have to sign it into law. The deadline for funding the government is midnight on Friday.