Biden and Chinese President Xi agree in principle to hold virtual meeting
CNN
The US and China have agreed in principle that President Joe Biden and Preident Xi Jinping will hold a virtual meeting before the end of the year, part of an effort to ensure stability in one of the world's most consequential and fraught relationships, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
The tentative agreement was one result of an extended, six-hour meeting between Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi. The two men met in Switzerland for talks touching on areas of cooperation and disagreement as tensions between their two countries have spiked in recent days over Taiwan.
Beijing has sent record-breaking numbers of war planes into Taiwan's airspace over the past week, prompting sharp warnings from Secretary of State Tony Blinken and other senior Biden administration officials about the potential for destabilization and miscalculation.
President Joe Biden asserted Friday that Hamas has been degraded to a point where it can no longer carry out the type of attack that launched the current 8-month conflict in Gaza, laying out a three-phase proposal Israel has submitted to wind down the grinding crisis as he declared, “It’s time for this war to end.