G-20 Summit 2022: Chinese Premier Xi Jinping to meet US President Joe Biden on sidelines of summit in Bali — Why it matters?

G-20 Summit: US President Joe Biden has announced that he will be meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on November 14 at the upcoming G-20 summit in Bali, with Taiwan expected to be the main topic of discussion, according to IANS.

G-20 Summit: Why Jinping-Biden meeting matters?
 

At the G20 Meet in Bali, the meeting of the two leaders — Joe Biden and Xi Jinping — will be the first since the US President took office in January 2021 , according to the White House.

When US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August this year, tensions between the US and China over the Taiwan issue rose. China’s response was to conduct extensive military drills near the island.

President Biden has consistently stated that the US would support Taiwan in case of a Chinese invasion, in contrast to previous US President Donald Trump’s stance, according to IANS.

US and China major irritants

Trade Deficit

According to the United States Census Bureau, the USA has a 309,230 million US dollar trade deficit with China. The United States of America and China have consistently had trade imbalances. Nevertheless, the deficit has decreased by 44,263.2 million US dollars over the previous year.

Blacklisting of Chinese companies by the US

According to Reuters, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden exercised its power to impose sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine and added five Chinese companies to a trade blacklist for allegedly helping Russia’s military and defence industrial base.

Technology ban

Reuters reported that the Biden administration released a comprehensive set of export controls in October 2022, including a provision to cut off China from specific semiconductor chips produced anywhere in the world with American equipment, significantly extending its reach in an effort to halt Beijing’s technological and military advancements.

Semiconductor chip shortage

A global shortage of semiconductor chips is escalating tensions between the US and China over supply of semiconductor chip which is a ‘brain’ of electronic devices, at a time when tensions across the Taiwan Strait between China and Taiwan are at an all-time high.