There is no end in sight to the ongoing wars, but the likelihood of a direct conflict between the two largest powers has diminished following the meeting between their leaders, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping. A small, big victory from months of diplomacy that was reflected in the Chinese press, in a marked change in tone toward the United States since the day before the meeting.
In 1985, Xi Jinping visited the US for the first time. I was part of a delegation from Hebei Province interested in learning more about the food processing industry in the state of Iowa. In 2012, he returned to that state as Chinese vice president and a photo of a smiling Xi behind the wheel of a tractor, in violation of protocol, went down in history.
These visits have forged friendships, from the family who hosted him in the 1980s to the farmer who invited him to jump in his John Deere. These and other “old friends” Xi met in Iowa – some who have since deepened ties with China – attended the dinner at which the Chinese leader spoke on the sidelines of the Asia and Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
A sign of empathy and friendship from the man who was once again called a “dictator” by the President of the United States during the press conference that followed the four-hour meeting on a compound south of San Francisco, California. “He is a dictator in the sense that he is the man who runs a communist country based on a form of government that is completely different from ours,” Biden said.
After years of trade war and conflicting views on human rights or Taiwan, the sighting and shooting down of the Chinese spy balloon plunged relations into their worst period since 1979, when bilateral recognition took place. The war in Ukraine was an additional factor of lack of harmony, which opened space for the deepening of the “strategic partnership” between Beijing and Moscow.
Hence the importance of the second meeting between Biden and Xi as heads of state, apart from the symbolism of the rapprochement itself. “Turning our backs on each other is not an option,” the Chinese leader said. “The world is big enough to accommodate both countries, and the success of one country is an opportunity for the other.” Biden revealed that they both agreed to an open line. “We need to pick up the phone, call each other and answer the call. That’s important progress.”
In August 2022, Beijing cut military lines of communication with the US as a sign of protest against then-Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. Both sides will now reopen military and diplomatic channels. The possibility that an incident could degenerate into a conflict was raised by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he received his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi last month with news that a Chinese aircraft had intercepted an American B-52 over the South -China Sea. just ten feet away.
The Chinese visit also announced the reopening of negotiations on climate change and the establishment of a working group for interagency coordination to combat drug trafficking. Washington has accused Chinese companies of supplying chemicals for the illegal production of fentanyl.
Praised by average According to a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry, Xi’s visit helped strengthen “the most important bilateral relationship in the world.” According to Zhao Minghao, professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai, “Xi wanted to make it clear that China rejects seeing competition as a political goal, an endgame or the nature of China-US relations,” he said. The Washington Post.
Source: DN
