The US has given a large number of Chinese journalists permission to enter the country to cover the first meeting between presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in a year, in a sign of improving ties.
The US has issued “hundreds” of visas for Chinese reporters to cover the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering in San Francisco where the talks will take place, according to a person involved in preparations for the summit this week, who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter.
The issue of journalist visas has been a source of tension in China-US ties since 2020, when both nations expelled reporters and those that remained were often placed on rolling, short-term permits. In 2021, the nations eased the restrictions for reporters they permanently host, handing out one-year multiple entry visas.
Despite that, China and the US continue to limit the number of visas they give to reporters from the other country.
“China and the US have reached a consensus on providing each other with visas for journalists accompanying visiting delegations,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in response to a request for comment. “The two governments have maintained close communication and coordination on this.”
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Xi’s trip marks his first visit to the US since 2017 and comes amid hopes that his conversation with Biden will bring some relief to strained ties between the world’s two largest economies. The Xi-Biden meeting will be a highlight of the APEC summit, and China’s reporters will focus on covering their president.
Xi is trying to present himself “as a global leader on par with the president of the US,” said Oriana Skylar Mastro, who researches China’s military as a center fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
The Xi-Biden meeting will be the first time the two leaders have spoken since the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November last year.
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The US has made resuming high-level military links between the nations a priority of the Xi-Biden sitdown. Beijing cut that communication after then Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in 2022. A string of tense military encounters in the South China Sea has raised the risk of an accident leading to a wider conflict.
Washington and Beijing are also set to reach an agreement for China to crack down on the manufacture and export of fentanyl, according to people familiar with the matter, in return for lifting restrictions on China’s forensic police institute.
--With assistance from Jacob Gu.
(Updates with comment from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in fifth paragraph.)
