Biden and Xi to meet in Bali as US-China ties sour

NOV 14: US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are due to meet in Bali.

It comes at a time when relations between the two superpowers have soured.

Taiwan is expected to top their agenda - Beijing claims the self-ruled island as part of its territory, Taiwan sees itself as distinct.

Biden says the two leaders will "lay out what each of our red lines are" over Taiwan.

The leaders are in Indonesia for the G20 meeting, which starts on Tuesday.

The meeting will be their first in-person encounter since Mr Biden took office in 2020.

Biden is making conciliatory noises ahead of his meeting with Xi - but the backdrop is a marked chill in relations.

China faces an ongoing trade war with the US and a fresh attempt to deny China access to high-end American chip-making technology that, according to some commentators, is designed to slow China's rise "at any price".

Beijing argues that the chill is being driven by America's desire to maintain its position as the pre-eminent world power.

President Joe Biden's National Security Strategy defines Beijing as a bigger threat to the existing world order than Moscow. And Washington has begun to talk about a Chinese invasion of democratic Taiwan as an increasingly realistic prospect rather than a distant possibility.

This is a long way from the days when both US and Chinese leaders would declare that mutual enrichment would eventually outweigh ideological differences and tensions between an established superpower and a rising one. (with inputs from BBC)