Who accompanied Chinese President Xi Jinping for face-to-face talks with Joe Biden?
- Chinese delegation, including some of Xi’s most trusted aides, offers a rare insight into Beijing’s foreign policy
- Meanwhile, the US delegation included Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury chief Janet Yellen and senior security officials
Each side brought a delegation of nine officials – including the head of state – to the table for Monday’s talks at the Mulia hotel on the Indonesian island of Bali, which is hosting this year’s Group of 20 summit.
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Xi and Biden begin face-to-face meeting ahead of G20 summit
The composition of Xi’s entourage could offer a rare glimpse into China’s opaque foreign policy formulation at a time of heightened tensions with the United States.
Xi was accompanied by his chief of staff Ding Xuexiang, who has been promoted to the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee.
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Ding has accompanied Xi on most of his trips in recent years, be it a visit to a steamed bun shop in Beijing or to the lavish Mar-a-Lago retreat of former president Donald Trump.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who was promoted during October’s congress to the 24-strong Politburo, sat on the other side of Xi.
A noticeable absentee on the Chinese side was Qin Gang, the ambassador to the US, who was seen as a top contender to succeed Wang after his elevation to the new Central Committee last month. He was made ambassador in July last year.
Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to China, who was part of Biden’s team during the talks, tweeted on Wednesday last week that he had met Qin “before his recent departure to Washington”. Qin was in Beijing for the week-long party congress.
He Lifeng, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, an economic planning agency, and a new member of the Politburo, was also given a seat at the table. He has been tipped to take over from Vice-Premier Liu He, Xi’s top economic adviser and chief trade negotiator with the United States and European Union.
Two vice foreign ministers, Xie Feng and Ma Zhaoxu, were also present at the talks, as was Yang Tao, director general of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs at China’s foreign ministry. A less well-known figure, Lu Luhua, the president’s secretary, was also present.
Hua Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman and an assistant minister of foreign affairs, sat on the other end of the table.
Meanwhile, Biden was accompanied by senior officials in his administration including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell, US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs Daniel Kritenbrink, and two members of the National Security Council were also present, according to the White House.
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The meeting was kept largely out of the public’s eye and was not confirmed until last Friday.
The US said earlier that there would be no joint statement from the meeting but there would be a press conference about it on Monday night.
