WASHINTON
\nUS President Joe Biden said on Sunday he will seek to establish \u201cred lines\u201d in America\u2019s fraught relations with Beijing when he holds high-stakes talks with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
\nBiden said he goes into Monday\u2019s encounter on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Indonesia stronger after his Democratic Party\u2019s unexpected success in midterm elections they were forecast to lose heavily.
\nWashington and Beijing are at loggerheads over issues ranging from trade to human rights in China\u2019s Xinjiang region and the status of the self-ruled island of Taiwan. Biden said he expected candid talks with Xi.
\n\u201cI know Xi Jinping, he knows me,\u201d he added, saying they have always had \u201cstraightforward discussions\u201d.
\nThe two men have known each for more than a decade, since Biden\u2019s time as vice president, but Monday will see them meet face-to-face for the first time in their current roles.
\n\u201cWe have very little misunderstanding. We just got to figure out what the red lines are,\u201d Biden said.
\nWhite House officials say Biden will push China to use its influence to rein in North Korea after a record-breaking spate of missile tests sent fears soaring that the reclusive regime will soon carry out its seventh nuclear test.
\nBiden had a fillip overnight with the news that the Democrats retained their effective majority in the US Senate thanks to Catherine Cortez Masto winning in Nevada.
\n\u201cI know I\u2019m coming in stronger,\u201d he said of the midterms\u2019 impact on his talks with Xi.
\nBiden will meet his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Sunday to discuss ways to address the threat posed by the North\u2019s missile programme.
\nChina is Pyongyang\u2019s main ally and US officials say that, while Biden will not make demands, he will warn Xi that further missile and nuclear build-up would mean the United States boosting its military presence in the region \u2014 something Beijing bitterly opposes.
\n\u201cNorth Korea represents a threat not just to the United States, not just to (South Korea) and Japan but to peace and stability across the entire region,\u201d US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters.
\nKim Jong Un\u2019s regime ramped up missile launches in response to large-scale US-South Korean air exercises, which the North described as \u201caggressive and provocative\u201d.
\nBiden on Sunday held talks with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, a key regional ally and member of the Quad security group.
\nBeijing has denounced the Quad, which also includes the United States, Japan and India, as an attempt to isolate it.
\nBiden flew to Phnom Penh from the COP27 climate conference as part of US efforts to boost its influence in Southeast Asia as a counter to China.
\nChina has been flexing its muscles (through trade, diplomacy and military clout) in recent years in a region it sees as its strategic backyard.
\nBiden told leaders at an East Asia Summit (including Chinese Premier Li Keqiang) on Sunday that the United States would speak out against Beijing\u2019s rights abuses, according to a White House press release.
\nA day earlier Biden took a veiled swipe at Beijing in talks with leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional bloc.
\nHe said the United States would work with Asean to \u201cdefend against the significant threats to rules-based order and threats to the rule of law\u201d.
\nWhile the president did not refer to China by name, Washington has long criticised what it says are Beijing\u2019s efforts to undermine international norms on everything from intellectual property to human rights.
\nDespite the US-China tensions the pair clinked glasses together in a toast at a gala dinner Saturday night, where they were seated on either side of the host, Cambodian leader Hun Sen.
\nWhile Biden goes into the meeting with Xi buoyed by the Democrats seeing off a predicted Republican \u201cred wave\u201d, Xi was anointed last month for a historic third term as paramount leader by the Chinese Communist Party congress.
\nLi met International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva at the Asean gathering on Saturday, when he also addressed participants.
\nBiden and Li took part Sunday in an East Asia Summit that rounds off the first leg of a trilogy of top gatherings in the region, with the G20 on the holiday island of Bali and an APEC gathering in Bangkok to follow.
\nThe consequences of the war in Ukraine are set to dominate the upcoming talks, although Russian President Vladimir Putin will be notably absent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINTON US President Joe Biden said on Sunday he will seek to establish \u201cred lines\u201d in America\u2019s fraught relations with Beijing when he holds high-stakes talks with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Biden said he goes into Monday\u2019s encounter on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Indonesia stronger after his Democratic Party\u2019s unexpected success in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-295002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n