What they want: Biden and Xi are looking for clarity in an increasingly difficult relationship

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping have no shortage of difficult issues to discuss when they sit down for their first talks in a year, even if expectations are low that their meeting will lead to major breakthroughs.

Each leader has clear objectives for the highly anticipated talks Wednesday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, a meeting that comes after what’s been a fractious year for the world’s two biggest economies.

Both Biden and Xi are looking to bring a greater measure of stability to a relationship that is being defined by differences over export controls, tensions over Taiwan, the wars in the Middle East and Europe, and more.

A look at what each president is hoping to achieve during their talks:

WHAT BIDEN WANTS

The White House has made clear that the U.S.-China relationship is beyond the days where a meeting ends with a long list of announcements and agreements.

Instead, Biden comes to San Francisco focused on managing the countries' increasingly fierce economic competition and keeping open lines of communication to prevent misunderstandings that could lead to direct conflict between the two powers.

Expect Biden to defend U.S. expansion of export controls on semiconductor chips. At the same time, he will assure Xi that he is not trying to wage economic war with Beijing amid continuing signs that China's economy is struggling to recover from the economic disruptions of the pandemic.

“The United States has no desire to decouple from China. A full separation of our economies would be economically disastrous for both our countries, and for the world,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng when they met this past week. “We seek a healthy economic relationship with China that...