Editorial | Relationship between China and US rests on people exchanges

China and the United States have gone to elaborate lengths to put their bilateral relationship back on track and steer clear of pitfalls. The recent carefully planned summit between presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden on the sidelines of the Apec leaders’ meeting reflected that. It focused on reaching deliverable agreements and leaving little room for harder issues to derail the exercise. Therefore the pledges to cooperate on narcotics control and governance of artificial intelligence, resume military communication and, most importantly, keep a line between the two leaders open 24/7.

All those things are important. But much remains to be done. Hard work, regular contact and patience will be needed to address core issues. Senior officials will maintain dialogue on more divisive trade, commerce and tech issues that drove bilateral ties to a new low since the previous Xi-Biden summit a year ago.

But it is the revival of vibrant people exchanges that will underpin the recovery of bilateral relations and give the best hope of defeating inevitable setbacks. People-to-people exchanges are a major casualty of the deterioration of relations.

In an exclusive interview with the Post, US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns hailed the importance of the two leaders’ commitment to bringing back such exchanges. It is arguably the biggest gain of the summit.

China and the US must resume people-to-people exchange at all levels to prevent the delicate relationship from “getting knocked off the course again”, Burns said.

“[Such] exchange is the ballast to keep the relationship stable. Our two governments have a competitive and contested relationship, but at the people-to-people level, it’s really important that we stay connected,” he said.

In the past, China has always said business and trade should be the ballast to the bilateral relationship. For the time being at least, these two sensitive areas can be expected to remain a source of bilateral friction.