Vox Sentences - Today's major China-US summit

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Hey subscribers, today we’ll be talking about:

UP FIRST: The Biden-Xi meeting

CATCH UP: Israeli troops entering al-Shifa hospital

—Rachel DuRose, Future Perfect fellow

The achievement of this year’s Biden-Xi summit is, simply, the meeting itself

Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in San Francisco on Wednesday. The last time the pair convened in person was last year at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, when the US-China relationship was far less strained. 

The lowdown: Since that last meeting, a Chinese spy balloon floated over the US, Democratic and Republican lawmakers began adopting a more hawkish view of China and got more friendly with Taiwan, Biden's and Xi’s popularity dropped, and the countries’ already tenuous relationship soured. 

As Biden and Xi sit down at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco, the hope is to mitigate this tension and get back to a place where diplomatic breakthroughs are possible. Here’s what you should know about the meeting.

• The pair last spoke face to face in a three-hour 2022 meeting. During the sit-down, the world leaders discussed Ukraine and Taiwan (with the US affirming its support of the “One China” policy, which claims Taiwan is part of China) and agreed to have officials from their respective administrations continue conversations. 

• With today’s meeting, Biden hopes to calm fears of a cold war with China, and Xi wants to elevate his standing in the international community. The relationship between the countries could also help lower tensions in the Middle East (with the US backing Israel and China having ties with Iran).

• The meeting could also spur progress on climate change, arms control, and smaller diplomatic concerns. Biden representatives have said that there are climate agreements in the works, and as Vox senior reporter Jen Kirby recently reported, any discussion on arms control would be monumental. The pair may also discuss increasing commercial flights between the countries while cracking down on the export of fentanyl.

The stakes: Overall, this meeting represents a desire for cooperation between the two countries, writes Vox’s senior foreign policy writer Jonathan Guyer. The goal will be to create pathways for diplomatic relations rather than generate flushed-out agreements. 

“The achievement likely to come out of this year’s Biden-Xi summit is, simply, the meeting itself,” writes Jonathan. “If there are policy announcements that emerge from the conversation, experts told me, they are likely to be minor.” 

Read Jonathan’s full story on the Biden-Xi summit here.

Israeli troops enter al-Shifa hospital 

AFP/Getty Images

Yesterday, after a multi-day siege, Israeli troops entered al-Shifa Hospital. The IDF has been targeting the hospital — which is the largest medical complex in Gaza — because it claimed Hamas is using tunnels beneath the structure as a headquarters, something Hamas denies. 

• Dozens died during the days Israeli forces kept al-Shifa under siege. Earlier this week, it was reported that hospital staff buried at least 170 people in a mass grave. [NPR] 

• Upon entering the complex, Israel says it found "terror infrastructure" and killed Hamas fighters. Israel says they have not had any conflict with the civilians sheltering in the hospital or the patients and staff that stayed. Hamas and health officials have refuted these claims, saying IDF troops have had violent confrontations with people inside the hospital. [Reuters]

• There are 650 patients, 700 medical staff, and thousands of civilians sheltering in the hospital, according to a surgeon, Ahmad Mokhallalati, who is inside the complex. Mokhallalati says that those forced outside the hospital into the outdoor courtyard of the complex are being stripped and interrogated in the rain. Israel has acknowledged interrogations but hasn’t shared details on how they are being conducted. [Al Jazeera] 

If you have questions about the ongoing war, let us know here. And here’s where you can keep track of all our developing coverage.

• Colombia is sterilizing hippos. Yesterday, the government initiated the first steps of its plan to control the ever-growing population of hippopotamuses in the country. The hippos are the descendants of those illegally brought to the country by Pablo Escobar in the 1980s. [AP]

• Former president Donald Trump seeks a mistrial in the $250 million New York state civil lawsuit against him. Trump and his legal team claim Justice Arthur Engoron is politically biased against him. [Bloomberg]
  

• Tuesday, the House passed a bill to avert a government shutdown. The stopgap bill passed the House with both Republican and Democrat support and now will go to the Senate. President Joe Biden said he will sign the bill if it passes. [CNN]
  

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