WASHINGTON / BEIJING: US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping has just completed their longest exchanges as world leaders – but three and a half hours of conversation seems to have done a little, if any, to narrow the super position.
Chinese media describes the meeting as “Frank, constructive, substantive and fruitful.” A senior US official said talks, held by video conferencing, lasted longer than expected and both parties discussed various problems from Taiwan, to trade, to North Korea, Afghanistan and Iran.
There is nothing from the reading of each to immediately suggest that both sides have softened the increasingly fierce position that has brought the relationship between the two largest economies in the world to the point of historically volatile, especially the Taiwanese problem.
And it’s hard to see the definitive impact.
“It seems they exchanged views about everything in the sun, but did not announce the decision or policy steps,” said Scott Kennedy, a Chinese expert at the center of strategic and international studies.
“Maybe it will be revealed in the coming days, but if not, this is finally reading the basic position of both parties.
They seem to agree that relationships need to have several fences and stability, but they do not agree how to get there.” Senior US officials said after the meeting that the exchange of exchanges from the US side did not really relieve tensions, or certainly the results.
“We did not expect a breakthrough,” the official said.
“No one reports.” Media China said XI said he hoped Biden could show “political leadership” to bring policy to us back to the “rational and practical” path, but it seemed to offer a little incentive for it, just an unpleasant warning.
At the point of Taiwan’s main potential flash, XI said China had to take the decisive steps if pro-independence troops crossed the red line, while saying that the US and China “like two ships that did not collide.” Daniel Russel, who served as the best US diplomat for Asia under former President Barack Obama and now with the Asian Think Society tank, noted it has taken 10 months for leaders to get to the point of face-to-face talks, even though it was held virtually, and suggested more who can come.
“We have to think about this not as a sort of peak once, but as one in a series of important conversations that can direct relationships in more stable courses while both parties continue to compete with anger,” he said.
“Hopefully the Chinese side empowers their team to be able to hold more authoritative talks at a lower level.
But this is only the beginning of the process of working from deep holes and in the end which requires the involvement of the two leaders themselves.” Paul Haenle, Director of Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for global policy in Beijing and former National Security Council officials, said that while the meeting has stabilized relations in the near future, “the long-term structural challenges in US-China relations have not been handled in a substantial way.” Apart from the lack of clear progress, some optimistic Chinese analysts and Wang Huiyao, the central president for China and globalization in Beijing, said that the meeting sent “a very positive signal.” “I think it will stop the spiral down from bilateral relations and will stabilize Chinese relations for some time,” he said, adding that it also must help reduce tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Wu Xinbo, American study director at Fudan Shanghai University, said the meeting continued a positive trend to increase bilateral bonds after telephone calls between Biden and XI in September.
“I think both parties will distract them to improve their collaboration and management of their differences that are more effective, so as to minimize the negative impact of friction on bilateral bonds,” he said.