Hong Kong (CNN) — Xi Jinping arrived in San Fransisco on Tuesday for a highly anticipated summit with US President Joe Biden — where the Chinese leader will likely try to bolster his country’s troubled economy and push back on perceived US efforts to suppress it.
That Xi is on his first trip to the US in six years — a four-day visit that includes his attendance at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation international forum — is remarkable in itself.
The leaders of the world’s top two economies have not spoken since they last met on the sidelines of another international gathering in Bali, Indonesia in November 2022.
To arrange this meeting, their governments have had to navigate a number of contentious issues: from the handling of an allegedly rogue Chinese surveillance balloon to Beijing’s targeting of international businesses, and tit-for-tat restrictions over high tech.
Expectations for major breakthroughs at Wednesday’s meeting are low.
Xi is heading into the summit as he struggles to revive a faltering Chinese economy yet to fully rebound after his strict pandemic controls were relaxed, with the property market in crisis and record youth unemployment.