Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping are heading into their big meeting at a country estate in California on Wednesday hoping to stabilize U.S.-China relations after a period of tumult. But the White House says the U.S. president also is prepared to confront his counterpart on difficult issues such as trade, Beijing’s burgeoning relationship with Iran and human rights concerns. The two leaders last spoke a year ago. Since then, fraught ties between the two economic superpowers have been further strained by the U.S. downing of a Chinese spy balloon an over differences on the self-ruled island of Taiwan, China’s hacking of a Biden official’s emails and other incidents.
