Chinese state media confirms that Xi Jinping will meet Joe Biden in San Francisco

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will meet with his US counterpart, Joe Biden, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to be held in San Francisco next week, the official Chinese agency Xinhua confirmed today. 

The meeting had already been advanced by the White House, but the Chinese Foreign Ministry had avoided confirming it in recent days. 

The meeting between the leaders of the two powers is one more step in the tentative thaw of recent months between Beijing and Washington after a year in which bilateral relations reached one of their lowest points due to issues such as the trade war and US sanctions on Chinese companies or the Taiwan issue. 

Xi's trip to the United States will follow recent visits to China by US officials: so far this year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and Special Envoy for Climate Change John Kerry have visited Beijing. 

For his part, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited the US at the end of October and held a meeting with Biden, which was the highest-ranking meeting between the president and a Chinese official in the last year. 

In early October, Xi said that the relationship between Washington and Beijing "will determine the fate of humanity" after meeting the first delegation of US senators to visit China in four years.