United States: President Joe Biden of the United States and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet virtually next week. The two sides have agreed to meet before Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, and Yang Jiechi, China's diplomat, meet in Zurich at the end of the year.

Given China's domestic COVID-19 restrictions and Xi's aversion to travel, Washington had hoped for a November video conference. The stakes are high for the meeting – Washington and Beijing have been at odds over everything from the virus's origins to China's growing nuclear arsenal – but Biden's team has set low expectations for specific outcomes so far.

Experts believe the two sides will reach an agreement to ease visa restrictions for each other's journalists, and that a deal to reopen consulates in Chengdu and Houston, which were closed due to a diplomatic dispute in 2020, will help to calm the situation.

Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that China is willing to work with the US on the basis of 'mutual respect.' "Right now, China-US relations are at a critical historical juncture," Jinping wrote in a letter to the National Committee on US-China Relations, a New York-based non-profit.

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