Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Joe Biden of the United States have held their first face-to-face meeting since 2017. The pair met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, to discuss their joint obligation for charting a new course towards a better a bilateral relationship.
Biden emphasised their shared responsibility to “prevent competition from becoming anything ever near conflict”. Xi, in turn, acknowledged that “the two presidents need to play the leadership role, set the right course for the China-US relationship and put it on an upward trajectory”.
This, of course, is easier said than done given the key areas of bilateral disagreement: Taiwan, North Korea and Ukraine, to name but the top three. The two leaders also face a raft of pressing global challenges in the climate, economic, food and energy crises. And while the tone of the their opening remarks was amicable enough, it cannot disguise the fact that US-China relations have been at their lowest point in decades.
