China Briefing | Xi-Biden summit a good start, but US-China ties remain in on-off cycle
- The meeting produced no breakthroughs, but the fact both leaders agreed to disagree on issues including Taiwan and Hong Kong was viewed as a positive step by observers
- And despite Beijing’s staunch opposition to labelling the US-China relationship as ‘competitive’, there are signs it has softened on this stance
The virtual summit, which lasted 3½ hours, may have produced no breakthroughs, but the mere fact that they met, agreed to disagree on a host of issues, and promised to improve communication and avoid veering into conflict, was viewed to be a positive development in many quarters.
This says a lot about how far the China-US relationship, widely considered one of the world’s most consequential, has strayed off the beaten track and highlights the challenges ahead to heal ties.
Many media commentators internationally were struck by the cordial tone of the meeting as Xi and Biden recognised the mutual need to ease tensions and avoid conflict, particularly over Taiwan.
Biden noted “the need for commonsense guardrails to ensure competition does not veer into conflict, and to keep lines of communications open”.
Xi compared the countries to two giant ships that needed to “break waves and forge together, without losing direction or speed, still less colliding with each other”.
Beneath the convivial tone however, there was still a somewhat subtle dissonance emanating from the meeting.