WASHINGTON — CNBC confirms that Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be holding a much-anticipated virtual summit Monday night.

Biden and Xi had two telephone calls in the past year since Biden was elected to office, with the latest being on September 9. Biden and Xi have only spoken by phone twice since January, the most recent being September 9. Monday’s summit is their first formal summit.

The traditional world leader to global leader summits were carefully planned to bring about some sort of tangible outcome. Senior White House officials stated that the Biden-Xi summit won’t be as well planned.

According to one official of the administration, it is not about obtaining specific outcomes or deliverables. He asked for anonymity because there was still a lot of work on Friday.

The official stated that “This is about setting terms for an effective competition in which we can defend our interests and those our allies and our partners.” “We believe when such terms—or guardrails—are established, we can sustain a vigorous competition.”

This summit is happening as China and the United States are at war over major geopolitical issues such as trade, security, Taiwan, and military buildup.

The Biden administration noticed that China is increasing military drills near Taiwan over the past months.

Beijing’s campaign to “reeducate members of the Uyghur Muslim minority has drawn international criticism. The “reeducation push” includes forced labor and mass imprisonment of more than a million in “reeducation camps.” alleged sterilization of Uyghur women

The United States of America and its allies participated in the March elections imposed sanctionsSeveral officials from Xinjiang Province (the traditional homeland of Uyghurs) were arrested. Tony Blinken Secretary of State has described the Chinese treatment of Uyghurs as a “genocide”.

Beijing is pushing Biden to open trade with China. lift Trump-era tariffs on over $350 billionChinese products. Washington chose to abandon the existing tariffs and open new trade negotiations.

Biden, however, is determined to keep communication lines open with Beijing despite deep divisions.

The White House official stated that “intense competition requires intensive diplomacy.” “As President Biden has made clear, he welcomes the stiff competition, but does not want conflict.”

Washington and Beijing recently sought to emphasize their cooperation in areas where they share common interests.

The cooperation was visible last Wednesday at the COP24 conference on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland.

In surprise, American and Chinese diplomats reached an agreement that would set new targets to reduce fossil fuel consumption.

All together the United States and China are responsibleChina accounts for 35% or more of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. However, China has more to offer than America.

China and Washington can agree on climate change. The two countries often find themselves on opposing sides.

China’s Communist Party One has been trying to dethrone America as the World’s Number 1 Economic and Political Power.

This has been possible by leveraging its economic influence across the globe to fund infrastructure projects in developing countries and form transactional alliances only with nations.

Home, the Communist party violently suppressed Hong Kong dissidents, as well as gradually restricting freedoms enjoyed by former British protectorates citizens for more than a century.

The White House believes these slow developments are part a more long-term Chinese plan, which in some ways poses a greater threat to America than any of the other strategic issues.

China is offering the world a viable alternative to rules-based, liberal democracy through both words and actions. Beijing is stating that democracy does not deliver its people and that individual rights and freedoms have been overvalued.

Biden responded to the looming danger by unifying U.S. allies at NATO, the G7 conference, and the Pacific.

“We’re in a contest — not with China per se — but a contest with autocrats, autocratic governments around the world, as to whether or not democracies can compete with them in the rapidly changing 21st century,” Biden saidAn earlier NATO summit was held this year.