Speaker 1: President Boughten set to meet Chinese President she Jumping in Bali,
Speaker 1: Indonesia next week, joining us to discuss this. Nick Wadams,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg National Security Reporter, it's a very important meeting. Always
Speaker 1: when we see a meeting between the US and Shina
Speaker 1: and an official saying the President Baden is aiming to
Speaker 1: set a floor for a relationship, but it doesn't look
Speaker 1: like he's going to back down and make it too
Speaker 1: easy for She. What are we expecting make right? I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's a pretty extraordinary situation when you think about it.
Speaker 1: I mean, the US basically going in and trying to
Speaker 1: set expectations so low to the degree that all they're
Speaker 1: saying is we're trying to keep this relationship really from
Speaker 1: getting any worse. We heard the National Security Advisor Jake
Speaker 1: Sullivan say today that they would not anticipate there being
Speaker 1: any deliverables from this meeting, So they're not going to
Speaker 1: set up, presumably any new lines of communication, or any
Speaker 1: new committees or any new working groups and anything like
Speaker 1: that that might signal some sort of progress in the relationship.
Speaker 1: They also said there would not be a redoubt of
Speaker 1: the of the meeting, So, um, you know, so we
Speaker 1: won't actually know publicly what happened in this meeting. It's
Speaker 1: just described as a chance for the two of them
Speaker 1: to sort of sit down and look look at each
Speaker 1: other eye to eye and and set some red lines.
Speaker 1: So really, to me, what we're looking at is is
Speaker 1: just something that really symbolizes just how bad relations have
Speaker 1: gotten between the US and China, and how both sides
Speaker 1: seemingly think there's really nowhere for them to go but down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in many ways, I mean, you would think that we've
Speaker 1: crossed the red lines, right, whether it's Taiwan or some
Speaker 1: of the technology transfer issues that the Biden administration has
Speaker 1: put into a fact that isn't really limiting UH China's
Speaker 1: access to some of the most advanced semiconductor technology. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's potential or this relationship has the potential to get
Speaker 1: much worse, doesn't doesn't it? It does? And you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, I I was thinking today about the echo
Speaker 1: between the way that the administration has talked about this
Speaker 1: meeting and prepared for it and the way that they
Speaker 1: did with the meeting Biden had with Vladimir Putin in
Speaker 1: the summer of one when he went to Geneva you know,
Speaker 1: there was so much hype in Hullabalu around that meeting,
Speaker 1: and it was described in very similar ways. They're gonna
Speaker 1: set guardrails, the US is going to lay down its
Speaker 1: red lines. Of course, what happened, you know, seven eight
Speaker 1: months later Russia went on to invade Ukraine and relations
Speaker 1: between the US and Russia really have never been worse. So,
Speaker 1: you know, on the one him, that's a question of, well,
Speaker 1: how much significance do we sort of imbue these meetings
Speaker 1: with It will be who knows, you know, an hour
Speaker 1: or so, maybe a bit longer meetings between the two
Speaker 1: of them, Um, what can they really solve there? But then,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just so striking to me, and you know,
Speaker 1: the chances for how things could continue to go terribly wrong,
Speaker 1: whether it's new terrorists, whether it's continued tension over Taiwan.
Speaker 1: I frankly just don't see how Biden can achieve what
Speaker 1: he's saying he wants. I mean either side, you know,
Speaker 1: if you want to set the floor, well how do
Speaker 1: you do that? And they're not really saying right now
Speaker 1: on the Taiwan front. I mean, we know that there
Speaker 1: has been increased military pressure precious since Pelosi. Nanti Pelosi
Speaker 1: visited Taipei in August. How much do you think we
Speaker 1: are going to see the conversation's focus on those tensions.
Speaker 1: I have a great deal. I think Taiwan will be
Speaker 1: central to that conversation, both mostly because both sides blamed
Speaker 1: the other for inflaming tensions. The US says that it's
Speaker 1: China taking a much more aggressive posture to Taiwan, which
Speaker 1: in some ways it has done over the last several years.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, China is very worried about President
Speaker 1: Biden because he says, you know that the the status
Speaker 1: quo has not changed the US respects to one China policy,
Speaker 1: but then he continues repeatedly to go beyond what that
Speaker 1: policy says, saying that he would defend Taiwan and the
Speaker 1: event that China invaded, which is not something the US
Speaker 1: has committed to before. So um. You know. The thing there, though,
Speaker 1: is interesting, is these these guys know each other's positions
Speaker 1: very clearly. They parse everything the US and China trade
Speaker 1: statements all the time. So I expect it will be
Speaker 1: an opportunity to them for them to reiterate those positions.
Speaker 1: But I don't think either of them is going to
Speaker 1: say anything that will surprise the other one. So maybe
Speaker 1: we just have to get used to a deeper decoupling,
Speaker 1: if I can use that term to describe it. I mean,
Speaker 1: we're dealing with two superpowers and uh, increasingly both more
Speaker 1: isolated one from the other. Well, that's certainly seems to
Speaker 1: be the way that it's heading, I mean, and that
Speaker 1: to me is interesting where you could see these guys
Speaker 1: sort of decide, Okay, maybe now it's time to pull
Speaker 1: back from the brink. And maybe that's naive or overly optimistic,
Speaker 1: but if you play out a future, these the world's
Speaker 1: too largest economies, they have essentially intertwined with one another
Speaker 1: so greatly that too d couple would rec fire a
Speaker 1: massive economic rupture that would essentially cause the global economy
Speaker 1: to go into a tailspin um. I mean, this would
Speaker 1: be a major change. So if they're looking over the edge,
Speaker 1: who knows, maybe they'll pull back. Nick, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for being with us. Nick Wadham's Bloomberg national security reporter,
Speaker 1: helping us a preview next week's meeting between President's Biden
Speaker 1: and she here on Daybreak, Asia