in just a few moments. let's hand it off to anderson. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good evening. in just a few moments from now, president biden is expected to talk and take questions from reporters about his summit meeting this afternoon with china's president xi jinping. the schedule for the press conference has shifted throughout the evening, but it is now expected to begin very shortly. the two leaders spoke for about four hours today at a mansion just outside san francisco in conjunction with apec, the asia-pacific economic cooperation forum, being held in that city. a senior american official saying the two leaders agreed to take steps to curb fentanyl production. afterwards, quote, planet earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed, adding that one country turning its back on the other is not an option. mj lee is at the summit location for us. david culver is in san francisco. he reported from china for three years, including at the height of the pandemic. also evan oz knows, former israeli ambassador to the united states, michael orrin, and dana bash. mj, what's the white house saying about how the summit went? >> well, you know, anderson, as we wait for president biden to come out any moment now for this solo press conference, i think it is abundantly clear that when he comes out, he is going to herald this summit as having been a success. it is clear that he is going to point to a few of the deliverables that the administration had laid out, leading into the summit, namely the re-establishment of the military-to-military communications between the two countries. and then this significant announcement on cracking down on fentanyl. i think in the bigger picture, the president is likely to say that he has achieved, sort of, the overarching goal of hitting a reset on u.s./china relations. both leaders, when we heard them speaking at the top of the summit, making very clear that they agree that, even though these are two countries with serious conflicts and areas of disagreement, that what they do agree on is that the two countries must be able to have diplomacy, that there must be communication between the two countries, so that they can avoid any misunderstanding and really dangerous situations, where crises might erupt. so, i think we are expected to hear president biden talking about this in terms of, sort of, the success coming out of this. that's not to say that these conversations did not touch on tough issues, areas of disagreement. but, again, i think it is abundantly clear that in terms of the big picture goal of hitting a reset on u.s./china relations, president biden and everyone on down, we are expected to hear say that that goal was achieved and that there's going to be more conversations, that this is just the beginning of more conversations and more diplomacy in the months to come. >> david, how is the chinese media describing the summit? china and its media have been railing against the u.s. for years. this does seem to be a huge shift. >> it was a major shift, anderson. and today i had to go through some of the chinese state media articles multiple times just to make sure i was reading it right. certainly the years i was living there, 2019 to the height of the pandemic, it was nothing positive toward the u.s. and what we have seen in the past 24 is almost a glowing pro-u.s. messaging coming from chinese state media. and i'm sure even those reading that within china were a bit confused. some were even commenting on social media, noticing the tone shift and how dramatic it was within their own country. but taking all of that aside, i'm really curious to see how they're going to portray it in the days to come because that will indicate where the chinese communist party is perhaps trying to lead the narrative to go from here. and you hear from u.s. officials and perhaps a fresh start. i don't want to come across pessimistic on this. but deliverables have to come into action. and china has agreed to things in the past. and they can take steps toward something like cracking down on fentanyl or perhaps re-establishing communication between the two countries' militaries, which sound great. and they're certainly using all the right words in some of these chinese state media readouts that are coming out right now. we've got to see the action follow. and i know china can mobilize, literally overnight. we saw that when they locked down a city three times the size of new york city. i was living in the mid-s of that. when they want to do something, they can. it's very different than the u.s. where there's a lot more bureaucracy. you have to go to public comment. the chinese way of doing things, if the party wants to go a certain direction, if xi jinping wants to do something, it will happen, anderson. >> and you've done a lot of reporting on the fentanyl pipeline from china. how significant could it be? >> reporter: so, when we think about fentanyl coming into the u.s., the direct link is mexico at the southern border. skpu i have talked about this in recent months. we spent time in sinaloa, with the mexican army, as they were trying to bust labs. after we did that report, mexico's president said they don't make fentanyl in mexico. and then reached out to president xi jinping asking for help when it comes to the ingredients to make fentanyl, what are known as the precursors. that's the source of it all. and that is within china. and it is really easily accessible. our investigation showed how you can just log on to wechat, communicate with some of these folks who are representing some of the precursor productions, and you can place an order and have it shipped really anywhere in the world that you wanted. most of it going to mexico. and even some of those folks who are working for those production factories will provide a how-to guide in making fentanyl. so, this is going to take the chinese government doing a serious crackdown. and again, anderson, if they want to do it, they can do that. >> it looks like we have some activity. you saw secretary of state antony blinken getting seated. it seems like the president is very close. the stakes are very high for him, not just on china, but the middle east, his re-election. >> all of it. this is very rare. and when i say "this," i mean just having a press conference. so, it is going to be an opportunity for the reporters, like mj and others who cover him on a regular basis, to ask him, of course, about china and about what we're hearing from david and mj. but a lot of questions about the u.s. policy and stance towards the middle east. and also, as you mentioned, the very place he seems to be according to every single poll, not just national polls but see battleground states, of where he is vis-a-vis the presumptive front runner on the republican side. and that is donald trump. so, a lot of opportunity, hopefully, for many reporters to get questions. because it is so rare that that happens with this president. >> evan, i want to talk to you about the shift of tone by china toward the u.s. you recently wrote a really fascinating piece from "the new yorker" titled "china's age of malaise." what's driving china to do this? >> that is a key piece of the puzzle. in some ways xi jinping was coming into this summit in a much weaker position than he was a year or so ago. you know, there was a time when it felt as if he was riding high. he had just installed all of his loya loyalists into the senior ranks of the government. now the chinese economy is struggling, as many people know. also more broadly. this is one of the things i sensed on the ground when i was there recently. there's just a real sense of frustration. one of the words people use in chinese, they feel disheartened to do something. it's a big deal. that's a big change from when he came into office a decade ago. he came into the room today, you heard him making very clear indications that he wanted this summit to be a success. david a moment ago was describing how the positive message in the chinese media -- that's not by accident. the message has already come down before they met that they wanted this to be a success as much as the americans did. >> and yet the issues that -- there's a lot of issues that are extraordinarily difficult for the u.s. and china to agree on. >> yeah, that's really -- in some ways the short-term fact is they came out of here with a productive, successful civil meeting. the long-term fact is that they still -- across a whole range of issues. i'll give you one fascinating little detail from the opening remarks today. xi jinping, when he was just framing the meeting, he said that he does not share the view that these two countries are in a competition, which is afterall at the core of how the united states sees it. but the chinese would rather not have a competition. they would rather the united states, frankly, move out of the way, take on a smaller role in the middle east, in ukraine, in taiwan. and that is a core disagreement between these two. and that's not going away. that's what you need now, the infrastructure of things like military-to-military communications to manage on a day-to-day basis. >> mj, dana was talking about how rare it is to have a press conference with president biden. how long has it been? and how long is this expected to be? do we know? >> yeah. this is just the third solo press conference that the president is taking part in this year. it is certainly rare for reporters covering him regularly to get this kind of open and formal opportunity to ask him questions. one thing that i just wanted to note, just jumping in on what evan was noting before, just based on our reporting, i think it is clear that u.s. officials would, sort of, carefully and privately say that the dynamics at play for president xi back at home, domestically, probably had a lot to do with the interactions that we saw playing out tonight between the two leaders. of course u.s. officials are very attune to the fact that there are serious economic problems that president xi is facing at home. and our reporting was that in the months of planning that went into this summit, that there was a level of anxiety and a level of concern about how this would look for president xi, as he was visiting the u.s. for just a couple of days. this is not unusual, of course. we are talking about a foreign trim for the leader of china. but u.s. officials involved in the planning of this summit saying that that level of concern and the attention to detail down to where he would sit, what he would see when he looked out the window, that it really was, sort of, unprecedented. so, again, i think u.s. officials might argue that the dynamics that are at play for president xi back at home had very much to do with the, sort of, decision to engage u.s. officials in this way right now. and that maybe u.s. officials, sort of, took advantage of the opportunity here that was available to them, taking into account the fact that they could make the case to their chinese counterparts. if you did x, y, and z, it could be to your benefit, particularly on the economic front. anderson? >> david culver, what is the benefit to china of if there is going to be a shift in tone or shift in relations? >> yeah, if they're going to take any action, you can bet they're going to want something in exchange. there's going to have to be something that the u.s. goes forward with. and as evan pointed out, it's a struggling economy. it is a really tough situation right now. youth unemployment at an all-time high. you've got a housing market there that's in crisis. so, what president xi is trying to do in many ways is trying to figure out how he can boost his economy, and perhaps relying on american companies and perhaps even wooing them to go back. many of them left not only during the pandemic but in the months after because of beijing's crackdown on corporations. i mean, the government was going after and raiding offices in shanghai of american companies. now you have just a couple hours from now president xi hosting a welcome xi dinner, if you will, and it's being put on my two u.s.-based organizations. they focus on u.s.-china relations and in part focusing on bettering business relations. and this is a dinner in which president xi is hoping to rub elbows with some of these folks and perhaps convince them to come back to china if they've left or expand their reach within china. the issue these businesses is, can we trust you president xi? can we trust the government isn't going to go forward with another crackdown? and can we trust any money we make in china, we can get out of china? many years they saw a lot of money coming out of china and saw it as an opportunistic place to be doing business. now they're not so sure. so, that dinner, by the way, that's going to be happening tonight, anderson, is really controversial. u.s. lawmakers are weighing in on this. you have the chairman of the house select committee that focuses on the ccp saying that this is an unconscionable dinner because of the price it will cost for those who want to pay to attend. that's $40,000 for those wanting a seat at the table with president xi. so, they're looking into names. they want names. >> ccp is the chinese communist party. when president biden spoke in tel aviv, you were very fusive about his support for israel. do you see any shift in the administration's stance? obviously the administration is under pressure from a lot of different quarters. >> good to be with you, anderson. listen, they've shifted a bit on the question of the humanitarian pauses, the humanitarian corridors. and the israeli government is now, i think, tried to meet the president halfway on those measures, understanding the president is under that type of pressure. but on the crucial, crucial issue of the ceasefire, the president and his administration have not wavered a bit. they understand that the ceasefire means hamas wins, hamas gets away with mass murder. and they realize that a ceasefire for israel is something close to death. i mean, we would not be able to restore internal security or restore our regional deterrence. iran will internalize they can hit us with impunity and the international community will impose a ceasefire. i don't know how israel remains habitable after that point. so, there, the president, the secretary of state, have really stood steadfast. john kirby getting up every night before the white house press court and saying, we are against a ceasefire. i think it's also a bipartisan support, as we saw in the mass rally yesterday in washington. >> dana bash, i mean, mj was saying this is only the third press conference he's been involved with. i think she said this year. it is a small amount. obviously there's a lot of questions about his stamina, his abilities. there's going to be a lot of people watching this to look at that and to see how he answers questions. >> yeah. no question. whenever president biden is asked about those issues, something that there's nothing he can do about, which is his age, his answer is, watch me. and this is an opportunity for the american people, people around the world, to actually do just that, to watch him. but much more importantly to really -- on the very, very big issues before him in his presidency in this country, internationally, like you just talked about with ambassador orrin. i mean, certainly he has been extremely steadfast when it comes to israel. -- with xi jinping, but also a lot of eyes on him. less than a year away from his re-election, lots of questions about domestic issues. unclear if he's going to get those questions about the economy, about the economy doing better. even this week, we saw numbers where they matter most to people. the price of eggs, the price of goods, they are better. the inflation numbers are going down. so, why don't people credit him with that? those are the messages that if he does give a lengthy press conference that reporters will be able to talk to him about, not just international, not just the raw political, but some of the policies that he's hoping he can get re-elected on. and he's been trying to do it more and more. a chance to make his case. but, again, get some probing questions from those who cover him every day. >> evan, in terms of what the u.s. could do for china or china would be looking specifically to the u.s. for, what do you think is top of the list? >> we know what china wants. it's a meaningful fact that xi jinping has left that meeting and went to that bank with business leaders. the reason for this visit was xi jinping wanted to essentially go out into the world and signal to the global business community, to investors who have gotten very nervous about china, that he gets it, that he is, in a sense -- that he recognizes that he needs to show that he's paying attention to the economic troubles at home and that he's not pursuing a conflict with the united states, which after all, would be a disaster for the world and for the world economy. so, on some level, his presence here is a sign that he is willing to acknowledge the scale of concern. but i think in terms of specifics, he would like the united states to say we are not going to impose -- semiconductors, a.i. he's not going gto get that. that is a major piece of how biden imagines the future of this relationship. so, they have to come to some sort of accommodation. >> obviously, evan, the issue of taiwan is a big, you know, disagreement, point of contention, obviously, between the u.s. and china. >> it is. in some ways it's the core point of contention. and in some ways actually what this meeting was about was not changing their position. it was about underscoring how emphatic the united states is about two big things. one, it is not actually supporting independence for taiwan. it supports the status quo, which is the self-governing status that taiwan has now. but also indicating that the united states is not backing off the idea of defending taiwan in the event of an attack. it's a precise balance, but it's one of the key reasons they wanted to have this meeting. there's a fear when i was in beijing. i heard it when i was there. they think the united states is moving toward supporting independence in taiwan. if that happened, it would be, from china's perspective, a five-alarm fire. and joe biden wanted to send a very clear message that, no, our position has not changed. we will defend taiwan, and we want it to stay in the safe status that it enjoys right now. >> david culver, as we wait for president biden to make remarks and to take questions, in terms of the precursor chemicals involved, the precursor ingredients for fentanyl, is there a -- for some of those chemicals, are there legitimate reasons for them to be manufactured? and how easy is it -- are we talking about shutting down factories in china or just the distribution supply networks? >> it's a fair point because there are a long list of chemicals that you could look at here to create fentanyl, certainly could be used for other things and are used for things in everyday life, paints and nail polish remover, things like that. . however, what you have to look at is the quantities. so, the way it was likended to me by one federal investigator, if someone is going to cvs picking up a couple packs of sudafed, not all that concerning. if they're picking up 500 packs of sudafed, that raises -- >> the president is walking up now. let's listen. >> please, have a seat. as you know i just concluded several hours of meetings with president xi, and i believe they're some of the most constructive and productive discussions we've had. i've been meeting with president xi since both of us were vice president over ten years ago. our meetings have always been candid and straightforward. we haven't always agreed, but they've been straightforward.