Joe Biden has long prided himself on the deep relationships
he's developed at home and abroad over 5 decades in
public life,
arguing it has enabled him to get things done even
with potential opponents and adversaries.
When it comes to Xi Jinping,
Biden has often over and over boasted that he knows
him as well as any world leader.
I probably spent more time with Xi Jinping,
more time with Xi Jinping,
more time with the many world leader has.
I've spoken with him more than any other state.
Little was known about XI in 2011 when then Vice
President Biden flew to China for their first extensive one-on-one
meetings.
We knew that he was slated to be the next
leader of China,
but we didn't know very much about him.
Kurt Campbell, one of Bidens top China advisors,
now traveled with Biden. Then I think President Xi was
quite an opaque individual,
was very careful in his discussions with the president,
but still in his questions and his comments,
we got to know a little bit about him.
I also traveled with Biden over the five day visit,
first for high level meetings in Beijing.
We would like to work with your country
and then more informal sessions outside the Capitol.
Biden shot hoops alongside XI at a school in a
rural Sichuan province and the two men toured an ancient
irrigation system.
But everyone on that trip knew that for all the
touring and photo OPS,
it was the conversations at the private dinner afterwards that
really set the table for the decade to come.
Biden offered some initial thoughts the next day expressing optimism
about the future of the US China relationship.
A rising China will fuel fuel economic growth and prosperity,
and it will bring to the fore
a new partner with whom
we can meet global challenges together.
Speaking with reporters on Air Force Two later,
Biden offered early impressions of XI,
saying he is strong and he is pragmatic and genuinely
wants a relationship.
Biden would meet XI again the next year when he
visited Washington for a first meeting with President Obama.
Biden and XI also traveled together to California,
focused on the economy. Those meetings and others to come,
were part of a careful choreography to manage the transition
of power in Beijing.
In conversation, since Biden returned to the White House,
both he and she often recall those initial interactions.
It's almost like competitive memory.
Who can remember what we had for lunch?
Or I remember what we discussed,
something that the other said could be used in some
way to gain advantage from competitive memories to competitive geopolitics.
the US China relationship since those early meetings has become
increasingly strained.
In the 2020 campaign, Biden took heat for seeming to
downplay the threat posed by China.
China is going to eat our lunch.
Come on, man. Oh, he is very naive about China.
China, just during the Obama years in particular,
just took advantage of our country so badly.
A very, very big competition China.
And I've stopped it. Biden's view,
aides say, is that the US is engaged in competition
with China.
And she to shape the world in the 21st century.
It's that tension with China that's been a key Biden
argument in selling his
administration's agenda on issues like infrastructure and advanced manufacturing.
He's trying to transform America,
to
put us in a path to win the economic competition
of the 21st century that we face with the rest
of the world,
particularly China.
I've told Xi Jinping it's never been a good bet
to bet against the American people.
Wednesday's meeting will be just the second face to face
encounter between Biden and XI since Biden took office.
It's the first direct discussion since tensions with China ramped
up after Biden ordered a spy balloon downed over the
US And it comes as she has maintained close ties
with Russian President Vladimir Putin,
raising concern about whether she may move on Taiwan like
Putin moved on Ukraine,
Campbell says. This is where the long relationship pays off.
Look, the president puts a lot of stake in being
able to sit down and work through issues,
even with leaders that he has disagreements with.
I think that we'll be able to call on that
previous experience as we sit down together in San Francisco.
Mike Memely is joining us now,
author of the upcoming book about Joe Biden.
I think I can say that,
right? Oh, God, I hope so.
I'm sorry. I should. I think it's been announced.
Okay. Fine. Working on it.
My point is that you know this,
you know this president, right?
You understand his relationship with Xi Jinping,
as we just laid out.
Here they are. They're not going to be shooting hoops
tomorrow in California.
Like that's not, that's not a thing that's going to
happen.
Exactly. That part of those details we talked about,
But it's what it's one thing to have a relationship.
It's another to turn that relationship into policy.
How is President Biden going to do that?
Well, that's what's this is all about,
right? How does this relationship advantage the American people?
And what's interesting in talking to Kurt Campbell and other
advisors,
there are less sort of deliverables,
to use the term of art that the White House
is really looking for at this point.
Explain what a deliverable is to humans who don't cover.
They want economic benefits for the American people.
They want a reduction of tariffs maybe that China has
on the import of US goods.
It's like a checklist of things they want to get
out of any given meeting.
And in this instance, there's economic benefits.
They hope. And what the US really wants is predictability.
We're heading into a presidential election year.
And Kurt Campbell said this
stay out of your Our knitting was the term he
used,
not just in the US election but the Taiwanese election
because she is an autocrat.
That's I think one of the most fascinating things.
Looking back to Biden's early initial impressions of she.
I don't think he predicted that he was going to
consolidate power in the way he has in China.
Because remember the part of the meeting,
the reason for the meeting in 2011 was because China
had term limits for its presidents and they knew she
was about to become president.
She got, she got rid of the term this right.
And so he's meeting him now in that context and
seeing how he's moved in this authoritarian way.
It's part of what's sort of looming over this meeting.
Did you think 12 years ago covering this Biden she
discussion then
that you would be sitting here having this conversation now
not not from your personal perspective,
but in the point of
Joe Biden now being the president.
One of the other questions I asked him on Air
Force Two was remember what the context was.
This is late 2011.
Obama was thinking of dumping Biden from the ticket.
He says I haven't figured out how to get myself
off the ticket.
He made light of it at the time.
So I didn't think I'd be covering Joe Biden still
as president United States now.
And I don't think he'd be thought he'd be dealing
with Xi Jinping still as president of China right now.
It's so fascinating. My family,
we're so glad to have you walking us through all
of that.
Appreciate it. Out of a big day tomorrow.
Thank you. We'll see you again,
I'm sure.