Biden, Xi to resume dialogue amid conflicts in Middle East and Ukraine

The 30th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit opened in San Francisco last Saturday with national leaders from 21 countries including South Korea in presence. All eyes are on the event, which lasts a week by this Friday, to see whether it will serve as a turning point in international politics as Washington and Beijing plan to meet at the peak of geopolitical tension following the ongoing conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and between Hamas and Israel.

The meeting was held in the United States for the first time in 12 years since Honolulu, Hawaii hosted a summit in 2011 under the Obama administration. U.S. President Joe Biden, the host of the APEC event, will be joined by most member states’ leaders including South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. In principle, Taiwan is part of the APEC group as a membership status is granted not to a country but to an individual economy. However, considering a possible backfire from China, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen was replaced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) founder Morris Chang, who attended the event as a Taiwanese special envoy.

Founded in 1989, the APEC community has grown in significance as one of the few dialogue channels between Washington and Beijing amid their escalating tension in the global arena. The U.S.-China summit talk scheduled this Wednesday – held on the same date of Nov. 15 last year in Bali, Indonesia – is by far the most highly anticipated session in San Francisco. The international community pays attention to whether the meeting will end up with practical progress, such as building guardrails for crisis management.

With signs of thaw in U.S.-China relations expected to be seen, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) summit, an economic and security platform in the Indo-Pacific region led by the Biden administration to keep China in check, will also be held this Thursday along with the APEC meeting.


Hyoun-Soo Kim kimhs@donga.com