WASHINGTON, 23 October 2021, (TON): White House officials are gearing up for a virtual meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping they hope will show the world Washington can responsibly manage relations between the rival superpowers, people familiar with the matter say.

Combative diplomatic exchanges with China early in the Biden administration unnerved allies and US officials believe direct engagement with Xi, who has consolidated power in Beijing to a degree not seen since Mao Zedong, is the best way to prevent the relationship between the world's two biggest economies spiraling toward conflict.

An agenda will likely not be set until after consultations with allies, they said, including during next week's summit of the Group of 20 countries in Rome and a subsequent UN climate conference in Glasgow.

Biden will attend both forums. Xi, who hasn't left China since early in the pandemic, is not expected to travel.

While the stakes for the Biden-Xi meeting are high – Washington and Beijing have been sparring on issues from the origins of the pandemic to China's expanding nuclear arsenal – Biden's team is so far setting low expectations for specific outcomes and has declined to say what the agenda might include.