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David Dodwell

Inside Out | How Joe Biden, Xi Jinping and Apec brought hope to our troubled world

  • That the US and China reached agreements, however modest, on military communication and climate change, is cause for hope
  • Beyond the spotlight, it is the trust built among officials through various Apec working groups that makes the headline-grabbing agreements possible

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Chinese President Xi Jinping listens to US President Joe Biden during the closing session of the Apec summit in San Francisco on November 17. Photo: Kyodo
For the past week, two international issues have monopolised the attention of the Western media: the tragic, appalling annihilation of Gaza under thousands of Israeli bombs; and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s efforts with US President Joe Biden, on the margins of the Apec meetings in San Francisco, to call the dogs off a bilateral conflict that, if unabated, could harm the livelihoods of billions worldwide.
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For the former, I have found the news unbearable to watch, not just because of the unrelenting horror of it, but because of the absence of any plausible end. One tragic comment haunts me – that of a Jewish father of a girl killed by Hamas suicide bombers: “We are doomed to live here together and we have to choose – whether to share this land or to share the graveyard under it.”

For the latter, the meeting brought hope, not just because of its constructiveness – though its outcomes were admittedly modest – but because it was set against the backdrop of the annual leaders’ meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, an oft-dismissed platform that stands firm as a lonely bulwark in defence of multilateral cooperation.

Many in the world’s commentariat have been disdainful of Apec through its three decades. Because it has no treaty-making powers, it is criticised as an ineffectual talkshop – four adjectives in search of a noun, they say.

I have always disagreed – though I confess bias because I was for more than a decade up to 2021 heavily involved in supporting Hong Kong’s business input to Apec.

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One of Apec’s greatest strengths is the very fact that it has no treaty-making powers. Its focus on non-binding agreements keeps the lawyers out of the room, immeasurably shortening the time taken to reach agreement, and the length of the agreements reached.

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