SAN FRANCISCO — President Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping outside of San Francisco Wednesday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum for the leaders’ first meeting since last November.

Tensions between the two nations have been high in the 12 months since.

That meeting drew eyes from across the world — including back in Washington, D.C.

“My parents fled from North Korea, from communism. So you know, I know how their communism works,” said Rep. Michelle Steel, a member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, who said she would watch how the meeting played out Wednesday.

She told Spectrum News she was hoping Biden would address a wide variety of topics, including human rights violations and intellectual property rights.

“America has a strong stance that — stop stealing, let’s do fair trade, and we are standing with Taiwan, and release all those political prisoners, especially Americans, you know, in the prison. So you really have to relate those messages,” she said of the administration taking the meeting with President Xi.

The House China Committee, established earlier this year by then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, has held a number of hearings on human rights violations against ethnic and religious minorities in China and economic threats from China.

Steel says there are growing concerns about China’s relationships with countries helping Russia in its war against Ukraine and Hamas in its war with Israel.

“They’ve already been so close to Russia, they’ve been already so close to Iran. They’re so close to North Korea — these are very dangerous countries. I don’t know we can stop those relationships that you know, when we build our normal, I don’t think it’s ever going to happen,” said Steel.

Although some lawmakers like Steel are wary of Biden’s meeting Xi, some experts say the sit-down is a good sign.

“The United States has set the table. And now the Chinese are willing to join the meal,” explained Robert Sutter, a professor of practice of international affairs at The George Washington University. “The design here is to open up communications with the Chinese lead with the Chinese government in a way that would allow for the continued acute competition between the United States and China. But it wouldn’t lead to conflict, military conflict in particular.”