Opinion | Biden-Xi meeting can’t paper over cracks in US-China relationship

“We’re going to continue to preserve and pursue high-level diplomacy with [China] in both directions to keep the lines of communication open,” US President Joe Biden said following his much-anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in San Francisco. In turn, Xi underscored Beijing’s commitment to “stable, healthy and sustainable” ties with Washington.

Undoubtedly, this was the most anticipated and consequential bilateral summit of the year. Throughout much of the year, the two superpowers tussled over a series of issues – ranging from US tech sanctions and Chinese “spy balloons” to Taiwan – without stable communication lines.

After a relatively warm meeting with Xi, Biden said: “We’re back to direct, open, clear communications”. At the same time, however, the meeting also exposed profound fault lines in US-China relations, with little signs of any breakthrough in the near future. It was telling that Biden consciously invoked the spirit of the Cold War, channelling his inner Ronald Reagan by describing the US approach to China as “trust but verify”.

Biden’s rhetoric only confirmed the importance of establishing guardrails in the competition between the two countries. By all indications, the coming year will be a tough test of US-China relations, especially as both sides press ahead with fortifying their influence across the Indo-Pacific.

By continuing the Trump administration’s aggressive China policy, however, Biden is only intensifying the US-China rivalry. If anything, he has added a more ideological tinge to the superpower competition by emphasising democracy promotion and casting China as an authoritarian existential threat to the US.