Daily Times

US President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will attend the first day of an Asia-Pacific leaders’ summit Friday ahead of a face-to-face meeting under a cloud of diplomatic uncertainty cast by Donald Trump’s election victory.

Biden and Xi are due to hold talks on Saturday, in what a US administration official said will probably be the last meeting between the sitting leaders of the world’s largest economies before Trump is sworn in in January.

With the Republican president-elect having signaled a confrontational approach to Beijing for his second term, the bilateral meeting will be a closely watched affair.

Xi and Biden arrived in Lima Thursday along with other world leaders for a two-day heads-of-state meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping.

APEC, created in 1989 with the goal of regional trade liberalization, brings together 21 economies that jointly represent about 60 percent of world GDP and over 40 percent of global commerce.

The summit program was to focus on trade and investment for what proponents dubbed inclusive growth.

But uncertainty over Trump’s next moves now clouds the agenda — as it does for the COP29 climate talks underway in Azerbaijan, and a G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week.

On Thursday, APEC ministers, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, held their meeting behind closed doors in Lima to set the tone for the summit to follow.

Trump announced this week he will replace Blinken with Senator Marco Rubio, a China hawk.

The summit will also be attended by Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia and Indonesia, among others.

President Vladimir Putin of APEC member Russia will not be present.

Trump’s “America First” agenda is based on protectionist trade policies, increased domestic fossil fuel extraction, and avoiding foreign conflicts.

It threatens alliances Biden has built on issues ranging from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East to climate change and commerce.

The Republican president-elect has threatened tariffs of up to 60 percent on imports of Chinese goods to even out what he says is an imbalance in bilateral trade.

China is grappling with a prolonged housing crisis and sluggish consumption that can only be made worse by a new trade war with Washington. But economists say punitive levies would also harm the American economy, and others further afield.