Joe Biden

Early Life and the Senate

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1942; in 1953 his family moved to Claymont, Delaware. According to the presidential biography on the archived White House website, he graduated from the University of Delaware and Syracuse Law School and served on the New Castle County Council; at 29 he became one of the youngest Americans ever elected to the U.S. Senate. Weeks after his election his wife Neilia and daughter Naomi were killed and his two sons critically injured in a car accident. He went on to serve as a senator from Delaware for 36 years.

Vice President and the 2011 Visit to China (2009–2017)

From 2009 to 2017 Biden served as Vice President in the Obama administration. On 17 August 2011 he arrived in Beijing for a six-day official visit to China at the invitation of Vice President Xi Jinping. According to Xinhua, Xi hosted a welcoming ceremony for him in Beijing and accompanied him to Chengdu in Sichuan.

China Policy as President (2021–2025)

Biden took office as the 46th President in January 2021. His administration largely kept the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration during the US-China trade war while adding new technology export restrictions. On 7 October 2022 the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security issued two rules restricting China's ability to obtain advanced computing chips, develop and maintain supercomputers, and manufacture advanced semiconductors, citing their use in advanced military systems; a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson called this "a typical act of technological bullying" that China "firmly opposes". On 14 May 2024 Biden directed the U.S. Trade Representative to raise tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 on $18 billion of imports from China, including an increase in the tariff on electric vehicles from 25% to 100% that year and on semiconductors from 25% to 50% by 2025. The Chinese Commerce Ministry said the United States had "abused" the Section 301 review process in breach of President Biden's commitments "not to seek to suppress and contain China's development" and "not to seek decoupling from China", and said China would take resolute measures to defend its rights.

Meetings with Xi Jinping

As president, Biden met Xi Jinping in person three times. They met in Bali, Indonesia, on 14 November 2022. The Chinese Foreign Ministry's account records Xi calling the Taiwan question "the first red line that must not be crossed in China-US relations" and saying that "the President has stated many times that he does not support 'Taiwan independence'"; the White House readout says Biden stated that the U.S. one China policy had not changed, that the United States opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side, and raised objections to the PRC's "coercive and increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan", as well as concerns about Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong and human rights.

The two met again near San Francisco on 15 November 2023. According to Wang Yi, the meeting lasted four hours; the two sides agreed to establish an intergovernmental dialogue on artificial intelligence, to resume high-level military-to-military communication on the basis of equality and respect, and to set up a counter-narcotics working group. They met for a third time in Lima, Peru, on 16 November 2024, where, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, they affirmed the need to maintain human control over the decision to use nuclear weapons.

After the Presidency

Biden's term ended in January 2025. After former President Jimmy Carter died on 29 December 2024, Xi Jinping sent a message of condolence to Biden the next day, calling Carter "the promoter and decision-maker" behind the establishment of China-US diplomatic relations.