LIMA — Lame-duck President Biden found himself in the back corner of the APEC conference’s annual family photo, while Chinese President Xi Jinping was prominently placed front and center next to host country President Dina Boluarte. This symbolic slight for America’s leader occurred just before his scheduled meeting with Xi on Saturday afternoon. Xi has been treated with considerable honor throughout the event, largely due to China’s financing of a new port on Peru’s coast. Biden, 81, who has increasingly been seen as irrelevant both domestically and internationally, earning him the nickname “super lame duck,” arrived last for the family photo, taking his predetermined spot between the leaders of Thailand and Vietnam in the back row.
The arrangement of world leaders was alphabetical by country, although past APEC family photos have shown deviations from this rule. For instance, then-President Donald Trump was given a central spot in family photos during the 2017 APEC summit in Vietnam, the only such gathering he attended. The president-elect, known for his assertive “America first” stance, was not accustomed to such symbolic slights, often positioning himself at the forefront during world leader gatherings to assert his and America’s prominence.
Biden’s trip has already featured several minor humiliations, including a grand welcome for Xi and a less ceremonious reception for the US leader upon his arrival in South America for the 21-nation summit of Pacific rim countries. The outgoing US leader, accompanied by his daughter Ashley and granddaughter Natalie, will travel to Brazil on Sunday for an aerial tour of the Amazon rainforest before attending the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro. Before departing Peru, Biden will meet with Xi for the third and final time during his presidency.
US officials anticipate that Biden will highlight their efforts to “responsibly” manage US-China relations and celebrate a decline in fentanyl overdose deaths, following Xi’s agreement last year to restrict exports of the potent synthetic opioid. An estimated 223,000 Americans died from the China-sourced synthetic opioid during Biden’s first three years in office, leading Republicans to criticize his earlier inaction. Trump, 78, has threatened to reignite his tariff-driven trade war with China, which he initiated during his first term in an attempt to secure a new economic pact benefiting American companies.
The Republican president-elect has also proposed a global reparations conference on COVID-19, where the Chinese government could be billed for its role in the pandemic’s origins, which resulted in over 1 million American deaths. Trump previously suggested China pay $50 trillion in “reparations” for the virus, a claim supported by parts of the US government, including the FBI, which believes the virus originated from a lab leak in Wuhan. Biden’s presidency has been marred by Republican accusations of being too lenient on China due to millions of dollars paid to his brother James Biden and son Hunter Biden during and after his eight-year vice presidency.
These payments were the subject of an impeachment inquiry that concluded Biden misused his prior position to enrich his family. However, the House abandoned the probe and did not vote on articles of impeachment after Biden ended his reelection bid in July. A 2017 email from Hunter Biden’s laptop indicated a 10% cut for the “big guy” in a proposed joint venture between Biden family associates and a Chinese government-linked energy company. Trump claimed last year that Biden “was bribed and now he’s being blackmailed” by Beijing, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) suggested that Biden’s leniency towards China “probably has something to do with business relationships and may very well involve Hunter and James Biden and some of the deals they made over there.”
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