Biden suggests Xi has ‘real problems’ hours before high-stakes meeting

SAN FRANCISCO — President Joe Biden was candid in his assessment of China hours before he is scheduled to sit down with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

“In our visit to San Francisco this week, we’re meeting with APEC,” Biden told donors Tuesday during a downtown campaign fundraiser. “President Xi is another example of how we’re reestablishing American leadership in the world. It’s taking hold. They’ve got real problems.”

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During the event, hosted by Democratic strategist and entrepreneur Clint Reilly and attended by Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), Biden celebrated Democrats’ wins last week in the off-year elections, particularly in Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia.

“At the start of last week, everybody was telling us that if Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) lost, Republicans won the Virginia House and the Senate, the constitutional right to choose went down in Ohio, if that had occurred, it would have been a very bad day for Joe Biden. You remember all that?” the president said. “But here’s the funny part: Beshear won, Republicans in Virginia lost the House and Senate, Ohio enshrined in the constitution the right to choose. Sounds like a pretty good day for Joe Biden.”

“Folks, this is the Biden-Harris agenda,” he added. “That agenda not only is popular … people are voting on it, winning the elections on it over and over again. The press and pundits can keep being surprised as much as they want. But since I came off the sidelines to go toe to toe with [former President] Donald Trump, we haven’t stopped winning, and he hasn’t stopped losing.”

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Biden is expected to meet with Xi on Wednesday afternoon, their first face-to-face conversation since a Chinese spy balloon traversed the country last spring. Biden will convene a solo press conference afterward, in which he is likely to announce deals regarding the resumption of military-to-military communication, fentanyl, and climate.

“Climate is one of those areas where we believe there is enormous capacity for us to try to cooperate with the [People’s Republic of China],” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday morning. “We’re the two largest emitters in the world, and there’s great responsibility that comes with that.”