The meeting was “constructive and productive”. Joe Biden and Xi Jinping on Wednesday reestablished a dialogue that had remained in abeyance for a year, but the leaders of the two largest world powers also noted differences that seem insurmountable, in particular on Taiwan.
The highly anticipated summit in California allowed the two heads of state to agree to resume high-level military communications, suspended for more than a year, Chinese state media said.
Xi also agreed to take “a number of significant measures to significantly reduce supplies” of fentanyl, according to a senior American official. This powerful synthetic opiate produced with chemical compounds originating in particular from China causes tens of thousands of overdoses each year in the United States.
“Inevitable” reunification with Taiwan
Joe Biden, campaigning for a second term, and Xi Jinping, faced with a degraded economic and social situation in China, have a fundamental interest in ensuring that the rivalry between their countries remains under control throughout a potentially tumultuous 2024, with presidential elections in the United States and Taiwan.
The status of the island, of which Beijing claims sovereignty and to which Washington provides substantial military assistance, remains a central subject of friction. On Wednesday, Joe Biden asked Xi to “respect the electoral process” on the island, according to a senior US official. The Chinese president, for his part, urged Biden to “stop arming Taiwan” while speaking of “inevitable” reunification, according to a source in Chinese diplomacy.
Washington also asks China, a close partner of Iran and Russia, not to aggravate major international crises: the conflict between Israel and Hamas as well as the war in Ukraine.
“Real progress”
The two men spent a total of four hours together, between a meeting, a working lunch and even a short walk, enough to give the press an image of calm.
The American president welcomed his Chinese counterpart in an opulent residence nestled in the Californian hills – the estate served, for the record, as a setting for the poisonous intrigues of the 1980s soap opera, Dynasty.
The two leaders have made “real progress” in the face of “global challenges,” assured Joe Biden on the social network X (formerly Twitter). The American president had called, in a short introductory statement to the press at the start of the meeting, to manage the rivalry in a “responsible” manner, to “ensure that it does not degenerate into conflict”.
Xi Jinping, who warned of the “unbearable” consequences of a confrontation, estimated, according to an English translation, that China and the United States could not “turn their backs” on each other.
“The planet is big enough for our two countries to prosper,” he assured, while Washington and Beijing are engaged in fierce competition, whether economic, technological, strategic or military. However, he informed Joe Biden that American sanctions harm “legitimate interests” of China, according to state media.