Biden meets Xi Jinping in San Francisco: US and Chinese leaders shake hands at Filoli luxury estate for crunch talks on Taiwan, fentanyl and climate change to try and repair spiraling tensions

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met Wednesday for the first time in more than a year for high-stakes talks to try to bury the hatchet amid dangerously escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Their meeting began with a warm, double-folded handshake and a declaration from Xi that the world is “big enough” for both countries, despite years of escalating rhetoric and provocations.

“The China-US relationship has never been smooth sailing and always faces all kinds of problems,” Xi said through a translator when he met Biden.

‘Yet, despite all the twists and turns, things have continued to move forward. For China and the United States, turning their backs on each other is not an option. It is unrealistic and conflicts and confrontations have consequences for both parties. Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed.

In his own remarks, Biden called for a “frank exchange.”

“I have always found our discussions simple and frank and have always appreciated them,” Biden told Xi, after years of telling the American public that he has spent more time with the Chinese autocrat than any other American leader.

The leaders of the two superpowers will try to prevent their nations’ rivalry from turning into conflict during the crucial summit in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Biden and Xi stood face to face on a red carpet at the Filoli estate on the outskirts of San Francisco, where they are expected to talk for at least three hours.

Relations between Washington and Beijing have been seriously strained since the US shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina in February.

The leaders of the world’s two largest economies faced growing concerns over issues including Taiwan, Beijing’s actions on South China Sea sanctions, espionage, trade and human rights.

They are also expected to cover a wide range of topics, including the flow of fentanyl into the US, climate change and the accelerating use of AI.

The two men were due to meet in person before a wide-ranging meeting with their top security aides, following tense clashes over China’s spy balloon, fierce economic competition and China’s embrace of Moscow amid Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Their meeting was months in the making, following high-level visits from Biden’s Cabinet and even a trip to Beijing by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who hosted a major fundraiser for Biden on Tuesday evening.

It’s the kind of personal diplomacy Biden stands for, with a leader who has unique power over a government that is flexing its resources around the world.

As Biden faces a divided and often dysfunctional Congress amid his own weak poll numbers, his top advisers believe Xi has the ability to deliver, if only on some of the modest agreements on fentanyl and climate that have emerged were leaked prior to their seat. down.

“I would say that what we have seen in recent years is the accumulation of power in the person of basically one man: President Xi,” a senior administration official told DailyMail.com during a briefing with reporters ahead of the high resolution. top on the stakes.

“What that means is that, yes, other forms of diplomacy are important. But honestly, if you really need to do serious diplomacy, it has to happen at the top. So the stakes really couldn’t be higher. Yes, I think if you want to effect change in the system, if you want to make a clear effort to influence certain outcomes, it comes down to a meeting like tomorrow.

Their meeting takes place on a 654-acre estate amassed by a California mining and gas baron.

The grounds of the Filoli estate include five “distinct ecosystems,” hiking trails, a fruit orchard, redwoods and natural springs.

The Georgian Revival style mansion has a total of 54,000 square feet.

The house was built in 1917 and opened to the public in 1975.

It is a far cry from the streets of San Francisco, where the APEC summit is taking place. That was the scene this week of ongoing street protests by pro- and anti-CCP demonstrators, along with people expressing their views on Israel’s war on Gaza.

Members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which is banned in China, also line the streets.

The crucial talks took place after San Francisco’s homeless were cleared from the streets in a massive cleanup operation to prevent Xi and other dignitaries from seeing the misery.

But there was still chaos around the summit.

As the meeting began, hundreds of anti-oil and pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with riot police outside the APEC summit.

The protesters, dressed in yellow vests, tried to stop people from attending the CEO summit at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, but were unsuccessful as attendees entered through an alley.

“We will not allow genocide to be normalized,” an organizer with the No APEC Coalition told the San Francisco Standard.

The protesters chanted, “Biden, Biden tells lies, you don’t care if the planes die,” and “shut down APEC.”

It is precisely the kind of overt political expression that Chinese authorities have repeatedly tried to suppress for years, including during the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, even as they opened up their economy to become a dominant global power, which after the US comes in second.

The White House said on a call with reporters on Wednesday that Biden would raise human rights issues with Xi, as he always does during such meetings.

The group protests against corporate profits, environmental abuse, poor working conditions, the war between Israel and Hamas and capitalism in general.

The secluded Filoli estate is a historic mansion with lush gardens located in the coastal region of Northern California, approximately 25 miles south of San Francisco.

Set in 650 hectares of grounds, it features an English Renaissance-style garden.

Officials hope the peaceful environment will contribute to a positive outcome of the talks.

“If they like each other, they’re likely to trust each other and communicate better,” says Jeremi Suri, a professor of public affairs and history at the University of Texas at Austin.

“In a place like this they can escape, not only from the media, but from many other things that fuel conflict.”

The secluded Filoli estate is a historic mansion with lush gardens located in the coastal region of Northern California, approximately 25 miles south of San Francisco.

Set in 650 hectares of grounds, it features an English Renaissance-style garden.

Officials hope the peaceful environment will contribute to a positive outcome of the talks.

“If they like each other, they’re likely to trust each other and communicate better,” says Jeremi Suri, a professor of public affairs and history at the University of Texas at Austin.

“In a place like this they can escape, not only from the media, but from many other things that fuel conflict.”