As bilateral ties between the two nations reach their lowest point in decades due to conflicts over a wide range of topics, including trade and Taiwan, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden have met for long-awaited talks.
Prior to the Group of 20 (G20) summit, which is expected to be tense due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the two leaders met on Monday on the Indonesian island of Bali. This was their first face-to-face meeting since Biden was elected president.
As they greeted one other at the opulent Mulia hotel on Bali's Nusa Dua bay, Biden and Xi clasped hands in front of a row of Chinese and American flags.
"The world has reached a crossroads," Xi declared, promising a "candid" examination of the problems that have strained ties between the two major powers of the world.
He asserted that "the world expects that China and the United States would manage the relationship properly."
In contrast, Biden welcomed Xi with a smile that belied the escalating rivalry between the country that has defined the previous century and its adversary who wants to define the next.
The US and China should "manage our differences, avoid rivalry from becoming confrontation," added Biden.
On the eve of his meeting with Xi, Biden told Asian leaders gathered in Cambodia that he expected the negotiations with China to be difficult but that channels of communication would remain open in an effort to avoid conflict.
According to Biden, they have "always had straightforward discussions" and this has stopped either of them from "miscalculating" their objectives, according to reporters.
Biden remarked, "I know him well, and he knows me. We simply need to determine the red lines and what matters most to each of us over the course of the next two years.As his Democratic Party maintained control of the Senate following better than anticipated results in the midterm elections, Biden arrived in Bali on Sunday night.
Since Mao Zedong, Xi is China's most powerful leader. At the Communist Party Congress last month, he won an unprecedented third term.
Lower than expected
The planned discussions haven't received much attention in Chinese official media, which has claimed that Xi will also meet privately with the presidents of Argentina, France, and Senegal. These meetings will be with Alberto Fernandez, Emmanuel Macron, and Macky Sall.
The most encouraging development may be that the two sides are maintaining open lines of communication, according to Al Jazeera's Patrick Fok, who is in Beijing. "There are modest expectations from China," he added.
Over issues ranging from Hong Kong and Taiwan to the South China Sea, coercive trade tactics, and US technology restrictions, relations between the US and China have deteriorated drastically in recent years.
After US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August, tensions increased even more. After Pelosi's departure, Beijing, which claims the autonomous island as its own and was enraged by the visit, conducted days of air and naval drills near the island.
Since Biden's inauguration as president in January 2021, the two have spoken five times by phone or video. Their last in-person encounter took place while Biden served as vice president under Obama.
The Biden administration was urged to "stop politicizing" commerce and accept Beijing's assertion of sovereignty over Taiwan by Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry.
Beijing also wants Washington to relax limitations on Chinese access to US technology and to remove tariffs imposed by the late President Donald Trump in 2019. Most of them have been maintained by Biden, who has also tightened restrictions on technological access that US authorities claim can be used to manufacture weapons.
Zhao stated at a briefing that "the United States needs to cease politicizing, weaponizing, and ideologizing trade issues."
Additionally, Biden is probably going to encourage Beijing to be more forceful in dealing with Russia's conflict in Ukraine. Beijing has abstained in significant United Nations votes, and the Chinese president has mainly refrained from publicly criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin's conduct.
According to US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, "We believe that, of course, every country in the world should do more to prevail upon Russia, especially those who have links with Russia, to end this war and leave Ukraine.
As a result of this year's unprecedented number of missile tests and concerns that Pyongyang may soon conduct its seventh nuclear test, officials say Biden will also call on China to exert restraint on its partner North Korea.
Leif-Eric Easley, an associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, stated in remarks sent through email that Beijing "has a vital role to play in promoting North Korean restraint and incentivizing denuclearization."
The paradigm for dealing with Pyongyang should not be "Cold War 2.0," but rather a multilateral defense of the international order, despite the slim probability that the Biden-Xi meeting during the G20 will immediately improve cooperation.
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