Get more with myNEWS

A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you

Learn more

In this issue of the Global Impact newsletter, we reflect on the meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) leaders’ summit in San Francisco. Photo: Xinhua

Economy Global Economy

Global Impact: Xi-Biden Apec meeting creates more questions than answers with many contentious issues still on the table

Global Impact is a weekly curated newsletter featuring a news topic originating in China with a significant macro impact for our newsreaders around the world
In this issue, we reflect on the meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) leaders’ summit in San Francisco

US-China relations

Robert Delaney

Published: 2:00pm, 27 Nov 2023

Why you can trust SCMP

Global Impact is a weekly curated newsletter featuring a news topic originating in China with a significant macro impact for our newsreaders around the world. Sign up now!

In the year between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping’s most recent face-to-face meetings – from the G20 in Indonesia to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) leaders’ week in San Francisco – history is neither repeating nor rhyming. It seems, rather, to be accelerating to the point where deep analysis is all but impossible.

In that time, Washington and Beijing had agreed to move beyond the fallout from then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which led to a severing of military-to-military talks and an unravelling of any remaining goodwill, only to lurch to another crisis caused by a Chinese spy balloon manoeuvring through US airspace.

As near misses in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea between ships and planes operated by the US and Chinese militaries increased, Beijing had resisted reopening “mil-mil talks” because, analysts have said, it suspects that the Americans will use them to legitimise their presence in areas that the Chinese government considers its territorial waters.

03:12

Xi Jinping, Joe Biden hold talks on sidelines of Apec summit to ease strained US-China ties

On the diplomatic front, at least, engagements began to tick up with a series of trips to Beijing by Biden’s top cabinet officials, starting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

However, these visits failed to yield any confirmation that Xi would travel to San Francisco for a sit-down with Biden, prompting many pundits to wonder what Washington would get in return, or whether the flurry of diplomatic activity was anything more than posturing.

The answer was clearer by October, when a bipartisan Senate delegation headed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer arrived in Beijing and had an audience with Xi, defying criticism from Congress’ many China hawks.

Not only did Schumer’s opportunity to deliver a message to the very top prove some analysts wrong and make a Xi-Biden meeting at Apec all but assured, the visit also foreshadowed one of the marquee agreements that would be signed by the two leaders just weeks later: cooperation aimed at stemming the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals, many of which are produced in China.

Xi and Biden clear ‘low bar for success’ but bigger hurdles loom

Just hours before the official opening of Apec, Beijing and Washington announced the plan for their top leaders to meet, with the much more expansive US announcement warning that “potentially contentious” issues would be on the table.

Secrecy on both sides kept details of the venue – the historic Filoli estate located in Woodside, California, around 40km (25 miles) south of San Francisco – under wraps until little more than a day before the meeting.

The estate, a primary filming location for the hit 1980s American television drama Dynasty, was established as a private residence in 1917 and was acquired by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1975.

For some China watchers with an appreciation for camp drama, confirmation of the venue might have sparked memories of another high profile, albeit fictional, tete-a-tete that took place there: when simmering tension between two lead Dynasty characters played by Joan Collins and Linda Evans erupted into a catfight that sent them tumbling into the Filoli estate’s lily pond.

01:06

Xi-Biden summit venue was site of 80s US TV drama ‘Dynasty’

The venue was also reminiscent of Xi’s last visit to the United States, in April 2017. Xi was then hosted by former president Donald Trump, who welcomed the Chinese leader to his Mar-a-Lago private club in Florida – another estate built in the early 20th century by an industrialist and eventually handed over, at least for a time, as a public trust.

However, six years of a bilateral relationship defined by acrimony ensured a different atmosphere. Gone were the personal touches and warm moments, including Trump’s grandchildren singing the popular Chinese folk song “Jasmine Flower” and reciting classical Chinese poetry to make Xi and first lady Peng Liyuan “feel at home”.

And when asked during a press briefing immediately afterwards whether Biden stood by his characterisation of Xi as a “dictator”, the US leader affirmed the assessment, which stood out as the sole sour note.

Still, Apec’s most-watched sideline summit reflected more constructive diplomacy than the meme-worthy farce that Dynasty has aged into. Not only did Biden get a pledge to cooperate on fentanyl, but also agreements to discuss the risks of artificial intelligence and the resumption of military-military communication. Xi, meanwhile, received a pledge from Biden to maintain the status quo on Taiwan.

Not quite Mar-a-Lago as Xi breaks the ice with Biden, 6 years after Trump summit

Immediately after the summit, attention turned to a gala dinner in San Francisco, where Xi aimed to reassure American business leaders, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, that China’s business environment is favourable.

The Chinese leader’s messaging came against a backdrop of economic malaise at home as well as increasing concern over Beijing’s investigations of US companies operating in the country. Afterwards, analysts and investors said the business community would need more than a steak dinner to allay these concerns.

Not surprisingly, the event also served as a lightning rod for activists and the US government’s critics of engagement with China, including Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of the bipartisan House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

Summing up sentiment among many of Congress’ hardliners on China, Gallagher claimed that it was “unconscionable” that American business leaders were willing to pay “thousands of dollars” to attend a dinner honouring Xi.

03:47

‘Door to China-US relations will not be closed again’: Xi Jinping offers assurances to US businesses

As if the US government’s stance on investment in China wasn’t clear enough, the main US federal government pension – the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board – announced on the day of the Xi-Biden summit that it would exclude investments in Hong Kong, in addition to mainland China, from its US$68 billion international fund, amid rising tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

While other high-level engagements took place at Apec, most were seen through the lens of the sprawling competition between Washington and Beijing for geopolitical influence.

Underscoring the Biden administration’s diplomatic efforts in China’s neighbourhood, the US leader celebrated a “new era” in the relationship between the US and Indonesia as he met with President Joko Widodo at the White House before travelling to San Francisco, formalising closer ties with one of Asia’s largest countries just a day before his meeting with Xi.

Meanwhile, a meeting between Xi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the Apec sidelines was dismissed by Japanese media and analysts as “pointless”, underscoring the degree of concern over Beijing’s strong ties with Moscow.

Apec engagements aside, the Beijing-Moscow relationship will continue to overshadow whatever goodwill Apec revived between the US and China, and make it difficult to figure out whether the next turn in US-China relations will be friendly or hostile.

60-Second Catch-up

Xi-Biden talks clear ‘low bar for success’ but bigger hurdles loom for US-China relations

Chinese President Xi Jinping offers cooperation, reassurance during US business dinner with detente on the menu

Opinion: Biden-Xi meeting can’t paper over cracks in US-China relationship

Joe Biden reaffirms stance on Taiwan in meeting with Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping and Joe Biden working to ‘enhance trust’ between US and China, says Foreign Minister Wang Yi after summit

China approves Mastercard’s card clearing joint venture in boon for expats, visitors

Opinion: Biden-Xi summit clears the low bar set for US-China relations

US, China must curb national security impact on trade, commerce minister Wang Wentao tells counterpart Gina Raimondo

Beijing warns companies against selling equipment, precursors for fentanyl

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to meet with Chinese counterpart ‘when that person is named’

China’s Xi Jinping pledges to tear down foreign investment barriers, entice capital with ‘heart-warming’ measures

Deep dives

Apec 2023: China’s Xi Jinping calls for united push on technology and free trade

Xi highlights role of innovation in growth as 21-member grouping wraps up annual conference in San Francisco
Free trade should not be weaponised or politicised, he says, capping his trip to the United States

Chinese President Xi Jinping urged Asia-Pacific economies to expand innovation and trade, as Apec leaders wrapped up an annual summit in San Francisco on Friday amid divisions over conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

“Innovation is a strong driver of development,” Xi told the Apec Economic Leaders’ Meeting chaired by US President Joe Biden.

US has every right to be in Indo-Pacific, Biden tells Apec CEOs

American president touts country’s latest economic numbers as Chinese leader Xi Jinping in submitted remarks calls for ‘seeking common ground’
‘A stable relationship between the world’s two largest economies is not just good for the two economies but for the world,’ says Biden

President Joe Biden told Chinese leader Xi Jinping that the US has every right to be in the Indo-Pacific in response to a question during their closely watched meeting on Wednesday, the American president said on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

“I had that brief discussion yesterday with President Xi,” Biden said at the Apec CEO Summit, attended by more than 1,000 business leaders. “He asked why we … are so engaged in the Pacific. It’s because we’re a Pacific nation. And because of us, there’s been peace and security in the region, allowing you to grow. He didn’t disagree.”

Not quite Mar-a-Lago as Xi breaks the ice with Biden, 6 years after Trump summit

Business-like tone replaces warm family moments of 2017 visit as Xi Jinping and Joe Biden hold first in-person talks in a year
Chinese state media frames summit as rapport-building exercise, but Biden’s repeat of ‘dictator’ comment strikes false note

The optics were more low-key for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting with his US counterpart Joe Biden at a country estate just outside San Francisco on Wednesday, six years after his last visit to the United States.

Xi’s host for that visit in April 2017 was Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, who welcomed the Chinese leader to his Mar-a-Lago private club in Florida less than three months after taking office.

‘China will eventually, inevitably be reunified’ with Taiwan, Xi tells Biden

The Chinese leader indicated Beijing is not preparing for an invasion of the island, a US official said after the meeting in California
The two presidents held their first face-to-face encounter in a year on Wednesday, holding candid talks on range of issues

Chinese President Xi Jinping has told his US counterpart Joe Biden to stop arming Taiwan and denied Beijing has imminent plans for military aggression, in a candid exchange on the “most dangerous” issue in the bilateral relationship.

During his four-hour meeting with Biden on Wednesday in California, Xi said Beijing’s preference was for peaceful reunification with Taiwan, but went on to talk about conditions in which force could be used, according to a senior US official.

Chinese media highlight leader’s ‘warm welcome’ in US in Xi-Biden coverage

Reports play up personal interactions between President Xi Jinping and American counterpart Joe Biden, as well as remarks on Taiwan and bilateral ties
State news outlets underscore Beijing’s efforts to improve strained US-China relations but ignore protests near Apec summit in San Francisco

In its coverage of heavyweight talks between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden, Chinese media highlighted the hospitality and respect the American side showed towards Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades.

When Xi arrived at San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday for a summit with Biden, their first face-to-face talks in a year, he was “warmly welcomed” by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, California Governor Gavin Newsom and other American officials, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Xi-Biden summit hit pause on troubled US-China relations: analysts

Improved military-to-military dialogue, coordination on fentanyl and meeting of minds on AI singled out as noteworthy takeaways from Apec discussion
But both leaders’ domestic political challenges could undo progress given deep bilateral differences and tenuous trust, analysts say

This week’s meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden met the very low expectations that both sides telegraphed well in advance, effectively hitting the pause button on deteriorating bilateral relations and delivering a few modest agreements.

But the problems are too entrenched, the trust too tenuous and the political calendar too fraught by coming elections in Taiwan and the US to achieve the fundamental reset that global leaders and chief executives want.

US-China defence dialogues restored but unlikely to resolve disputes: analysts

‘People shouldn’t have great hopes’ that return to military interactions will eliminate risks or miscalculations, policy expert says
Observers say renewed communication channels cannot fix fundamental disagreements on issues such as military conduct in South China Sea

Defence dialogues between Beijing and Washington have been restored following a rare meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden near San Francisco on Wednesday.

However, analysts were less optimistic that these lines of communication could resolve deep-seated disagreements between China and the US on security in the Asia-Pacific.

Chinese President Xi’s welcome mat may not be enough for US investors

Structural tensions continue to cloud the Sino-US economic relationship as companies look to diversify supply chains to other Asian countries
Many foreign investors remain wary given Beijing’s emphasis on national security, raids on foreign companies and strict data laws

Chinese President Xi Jinping is courting big American businesses in China in San Francisco this week, but analysts and investors say structural tensions continue to cloud the Sino-US economic relationship as companies look to diversify supply chains to other Asian countries.

t a gala dinner in San Francisco on Wednesday, Xi aimed to reassure American business leaders, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, that China’s business environment is favourable.

Global Impact is a weekly curated newsletter featuring a news topic originating in China with a significant macro impact for our newsreaders around the world.

Post