China’s foreign minister warns upcoming Xi-Biden meeting may not be ‘smooth sailing’

BEIJING — China’s foreign minister considers that the road to an expected meeting between President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden would not be “smooth sailing” and that both sides must work together to achieve results, the foreign ministry said on Sunday.

Wang Yi met with Biden, as well as secretary of state Antony Blinken and national security advisor Jake Sullivan, during a three-day visit to Washington. Both sides agreed to work toward a bilateral meeting at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in San Francisco in November.

In an statement released by China’s foreign ministry summarizing the discussions with members of the “U.S. strategic community,” Wang said that the road to the bilateral meeting would not be “smooth sailing” and that they could not rely on “autopilot” to make it happen.

Wang’s three-day visit to Washington came at a time when tensions between the two countries remain high, including over U.S. export controls on advanced technology and China’s more assertive actions in the East and South China seas.

The statement said that although there are still many issues to be resolved, both sides believe that it is both beneficial and necessary for the U.S. and China to maintain dialogue.

The meeting is the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the two countries as they explore the possibility of stabilizing an increasingly tense relationship at a time of conflict in Ukraine and Israel.

According to the foreign ministry statement, Wang also said that China and the U.S. needed a “return to Bali,” in a reference to Xi and Biden’s previous meeting at a G-20 summit last year, where both officials discussed issues relating to Taiwan, U.S.-China trade tensions as well as cooperation to address issues like climate change, health and food security.

Wang said that the two countries must “eliminate interference, overcome obstacles, enhance consensus and accumulate results.”

Other issues discussed between Wang and Biden included military exchanges between the U.S. and China, as well as financial, technological and cultural exchanges and cooperation, as well as the crises in the Middle East and Ukraine.