By HUIZHONG WU
Ahead of the highly anticipated meeting on Wednesday between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Chinese state media have taken a new tone toward the U.S. with less negative coverage, calls for a return to warmer ties and stories of Americans with positive connections to the country.
The messaging follows several years of unprecedented tensions between the two countries over issues including trade and technology, the status of Taiwan and Hong Kong and the origins of COVID-19.
Chinese media have focused on a recent visit by members of the Philadelphia Orchestra marking the 50th anniversary of its history-making trip to China that helped build then-fledgling U.S.-China ties, and on another visit by members of the Flying Tigers, a group of American military pilots who helped China fight Japan in World War II.
“The Chinese people will never forget an old friend, and that’s an important message we want to send to the American people,” the official Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily said in its overseas edition on Wednesday.
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In recent days the official Xinhua news agency carried a five-part series on U.S.-China relations which called for the countries to “meet each other halfway” and “work together to return to the path of healthy and stable development.”
But it also urged the U.S. to follow through on agreements made by Biden and Xi when they met in Bali last November.
“Only if we return to Bali, can we look forward to San Francisco,” it said.
The two leaders agreed in Bali on areas of cooperation including tackling climate change and maintaining global financial, health and food stability. China says the U.S. has deviated from pledges to “not seek out a new Cold War,” to “respect China’s system” and “not oppose China through strengthening its relationships with…
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