Chinese state media took a shot at former President Donald Trump on Wednesday, just hours before a meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
State-run newspaper The Global Times published an editorial Wednesday knocking Trump for imposing sanctions on Chinese nationals in 2019 over a dispute about the flow of fentanyl into the United States from China, a move that underscored the fraying tensions between the two countries.
Biden and Xi are set to hold their first face-to-face meeting in more than a year in an undisclosed location in San Francisco on Wednesday. Taiwan is expected to be the center of discussions. But a number of factors, including the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States and rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific are among the "constellations of concerns" between the two countries making this meeting so important, Howard Stoffer, a professor of international affairs at the University of New Haven told Newsweek.
Both leaders are expected to try to get relations "somewhat back on track" after years of tensions to avoid a wider conflict or a cold war, Stoffer said, adding that restoring communication between leaders in a "very open way" is a key goal of the talks.
The publication's editorial largely served as a preview to the talks, noting the common interests between the two countries are "extensive" and that it is normal for the two countries to have "bumps and wrinkles" in their relationship.
The result of the talks will be "completely different" depending on whether Chinese authorities approach Biden with a "constructive attitude or with a 'zero-sum mind-set' or even a 'negative-sum mind-set,'" the editorial states, before taking a swipe at Trump.
"For example, the fentanyl issue, which is of great concern to the US side, was initially a domestic problem for the US. China assisted the US in good faith with drug control, and the two countries once made good progress. However, the US side later responded with hostility and unreasonably imposed sanctions on relevant Chinese institutions and individuals, further undermining the foundation of bilateral cooperation," the article says.
The editorial compared Trump's sanctions to "lifting a stone only to drop it on one's own foot," adding that it depends on Biden whether the two countries can cooperate on drug control and other crucial issues.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign for comment via email.
In August 2019, Trump's Treasury Department placed sanctions on Fujing Zheng and the Zheng Drug Trafficking Organization, as well as Guanghua Zheng and the Qinsheng Pharmaceutical Co.
In a statement at the time, the department accused them of running an "international drug trafficking operation that manufactures and sells lethal narcotics, directly contributing to the crisis of opioid addiction, overdoses, and death in the United States."
Drug control has long been a sticking point between the U.S. and China, with Trump accusing Beijing of not doing enough to prevent the drug from being trafficked into the U.S.
Fentanyl will be a topic of discussion during Biden and Xi's meeting, Reuters reported. The Biden administration is aiming to get China to curb the illegal flow of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, the drug that has greatly contributed to the U.S. opioid epidemic.
"I won't get too far ahead of the meeting, and I'll let the president speak for himself after he has the chance to meet with President Xi, but we believe that there are areas where our interests overlap, like our efforts to combat the illicit fentanyl trade," National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN on Monday.
The meeting between Biden and Xi will look very different than meetings between Xi and Trump, as Biden is likely to raise discussions about topics that Trump was less concerned with, including efforts to combat climate change and military-to-military communication, Stoffer said.
There is a "vast difference" in Biden and Trump's approaches to U.S.-China relations, he said.
"Trump started off in 2017 trying to improve the relationship with China, but he quickly soured on that and started imposing all of these restrictions on trade. Biden has been able to slowly lift some of them," he said.
Update 11/15/23, 11:14 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Howard Stoffer.
Update 11/16/23, 7:30 a.m. ET: Headline updated.
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Andrew Stanton is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in Maine. His role is reporting on U.S. politics and social issues. ... Read more
