President Joe Biden will hold talks Saturday with China's Xi Jinping on the sidelines of an international summit in Peru, a face-to-face meeting that comes as Beijing braces for Donald Trump's return to the White House.
A senior Biden administration official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity ahead of the formal announcement, confirmed plans for the meeting to take place while the two leaders are in Lima for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit . That will come just over two months before Trump's inauguration.
The official declined to comment on how Biden and his advisers would address questions certain to be raised by Xi and Chinese officials about the incoming Trump administration or whether Biden would discuss the U.S.-China relationship with Trump during the president-elect's visit to the White House on Wednesday.
The official would only offer that the next administration is "going to need to find ways to manage that tough, complicated relationship."
During his campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump promised to slap blanket 60 tariffs on all Chinese exports to the U.S., a move that would jolt the already tumultuous relationship between Beijing and Washington.
