Biden, Xi virtual summit Monday

US President Joe Biden will hold a hotly anticipated virtual summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday, with both sides indicating they will not give ground on flashpoint issues such as Taiwan.

Relations between the world’s two largest economies have recently deteriorated, in particular over Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy claimed by China, which last month made a record number of air incursions near the island.

Washington has repeatedly signaled its support for Taiwan in the face of Chinese aggression, but the United States and China reached a surprise agreement on climate at a summit in Glasgow.

“The two leaders will discuss ways to responsibly manage the competition” between the two countries “as well as ways to work together where our interests align,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Friday.

“Throughout, President Biden will make clear US intentions and priorities and be clear and candid about our concerns with the PRC,” Psaki said, referring to Beijing by the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

The virtual talks will take place “in the evening” on Monday in Washington -- meaning early Tuesday in Beijing, she announced.

Biden and Xi have talked by phone twice since the veteran Democrat moved into the White House. The pair also met extensively when Biden was Barack Obama’s vice president, and Xi was vice president to Hu Jintao.

Biden had hoped to meet Xi at a recent G20 summit in Rome, but the Chinese leader has not traveled since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and instead agreed to virtual talks by the end of the year.

“I’ve noted repeatedly, over the past 10 months, that the relationship with China is among the most consequential and also most complex that we have,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday.

“It has different elements in it -- some cooperative, some competitive and others adversarial and we will manage all three at the same time.”