How the U.S. and China planned President Xi’s visit

WASHINGTON — A presidential meeting at an undisclosed location. Students lining the streets waving Chinese flags. A $2,000-per-plate dinner with the most powerful business executives in America.

Every aspect of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to California this week has been highly choreographed, down to what he sees outside the window during a motorcade ride and what camera angle he’s recorded from, according to people familiar with the planning. 

“There is no detail too small,” said Kurt Campbell, the White House coordinator for the Indo-Pacific.

Any meeting between two heads of state involves a degree of pomp and circumstance, but President Joe Biden’s long-awaited sit-down with Xi on Wednesday is the product of a painstaking process to accommodate China’s many requests. The behind-the-scenes effort is a sign of Beijing’s anxiety over the optics that could result from Xi’s first visit to the U.S. in six years.

Overall, China is looking for Xi’s trip to California to be seen as a “grand visit,” officials said.

The White House isn’t even sharing the precise location of Wednesday’s meeting, with officials publicly citing “operational security” concerns but privately conceding the Chinese didn’t want it disclosed to try to minimize protests. To try to visually overwhelm any protests, Chinese officials are expected to bring in students from across California to wave Chinese flags and show support for Xi. The move is meant to ensure Xi has a “pleasant visual” as he moves from event to event, a former official familiar with the planning said.

“Those will be the pictures that will be beamed back home,” said Victor Cha, a former National Security Council director for Asian affairs.

“Nothing can go wrong. It has to be 100% perfect,” Cha said, adding that the goal for the Chinese is that Xi be “treated like an emperor, and anything short of that or embarrassing is really the absolute worst thing that can happen for them.”

The U.S. also has cleaned up San Francisco, including clearing out encampments of people experiencing homelessness and sprucing up the streets.

Chinese officials have privately expressed concern to their U.S. counterparts about what Xi will experience during his travel, according to people familiar with the discussions.

They insisted that the meeting be held before a broader gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders in San Francisco this week and at a location entirely separate from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit site, two current and former U.S. officials said. China’s request was designed to elevate Xi’s stature above that of the other world leaders traveling to California this week, the officials said.

Another event where Xi will optically stand a cut above his counterparts is scheduled to take place Wednesday evening.

After he meets with Biden, Xi is scheduled to headline a $2,000-a-plate dinner with top U.S. CEOs and other dignitaries, officials said. They said that Biden isn’t expected be there because he’ll be hosting a separate dinner but that some high-level administration officials might attend. 

Xi plans to deliver a major address at the dinner, which is being organized by American think tanks, including the Asia Society and the U.S. China Business Council, officials said. The evening also will include a private VIP reception beforehand for key executives, they said.

The Chinese are keenly focused on courting the business community, as U.S. investment in China has been sliding in recent years, a huge priority area for Xi during the California visit. The CEOs dinner is also meant as a signal to Washington, according to experts, about the strong ties the Chinese government has with some influential business leaders, as the Chinese economy struggles to recover post-pandemic.

“It’s crucial for those business leaders to listen to Chinese senior officials about what’s happening [with China’s economy] and to solve the doubts they have in mind,” said Mike Liu, a vice president and senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization.

Xi last visited the U.S. in 2017, when he went to Florida to meet with President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate. 

Xi last spoke with Biden a year ago this week at a meeting in Bali, Indonesia, on the sidelines of the summit of the Group of 20 industrial and emerging-market nations. Relations soured three months later after the Biden administration shot down a Chinese spy balloon that had flown over the U.S. and Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceled a trip to Beijing.

Biden administration officials have spent the months since then trying to reduce tensions with China, with the goal of getting a meeting between the two leaders on the calendar. In that sense, the U.S. also has incentive to make sure Xi feels his visit was a success, and it has worked to accommodate China’s requests. 

One of China’s requests was the timing of formally announcing Wednesday’s meeting, an administration official said. China wanted to delay an announcement until Monday, just two days before the meeting, another U.S. official said. The White House compromised and agreed to announce it Friday, though officials wanted to make it public earlier, the official said.

The accommodating approach is a contrast to how China has handled some U.S. presidents’ visits to China. In 2016, for instance, President Barack Obama exited Air Force One from a small staircase in the belly of the plane after a lengthy debate on the ground between U.S. and Chinese officials over using a larger staircase that is typically rolled out for a red-carpet tarmac greeting.  

Campbell, the White House coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, said that for this trip by Xi, administration officials have been involved in discussions with the Chinese about “every possible aspect of the visit,” from camera angles to seating arrangements.

“I think both sides want a high degree of predictability when our two leaders really sit down opposite each other,” he said.

An unpredictable dynamic for Biden that could sour the optics for his goal of presenting the U.S. as economically strong and an example of a thriving democracy: a potential government shutdown.

The federal government is set to run out of funding Friday, the last scheduled day of the Asia-Pacific summit. If there is no agreement on Capitol Hill before then, it’s possible Biden would return to Washington early, officials said, and his engagements in San Francisco would be cut short. On Monday, White House officials suggested a shutdown could be avoided, as well as a scenario that would be less than ideal for U.S. officials who hope a domestic crisis doesn’t overshadow an important global moment hosted by the president.