The three pandas from the Washington Zoo are now back in Beijing. This measure by the Chinese Government is a sign of the deterioration in relations between the two superpowers.
The thaw of Mao’s reception of Nixon in 1972 is far away. The American impulse to help Chinese development has become global, economic and military competition. In the midst of this increase in tensions, the presidents of the United States and China, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, spoke face to face this Wednesday in Woodside, near San Francisco, on the eve of the meeting of the 21 countries of the organization of Asia-Pacific economic cooperation (APEC).
There was no hope of any big deals, “at least nothing that would change the world,” according to local sources. This is what happened, with the exceptions of a pact to stop Chinese companies from sending the chemicals necessary to produce the fentanyl that causes so much harm in the United States, and a commitment to cooperation between the two main emitters of greenhouse gases in the fight against climate change.
However, there was no joint statement and the US president appeared alone at a press conference to give his version.
The bar for success was very low. But anything that stops the relationship from getting worse was already a victory. The main objective for both was to stabilize relations and prevent rivalry from mistakenly leading to conflict.
The maximum aspiration of the US was to recover the communication channel between the military, which China cut after the visit to Taiwan of Nancy Pelosi, then president of the Lower House, in the summer of 2022. US sources assured, at the end of the four hours of conversation, that the two leaders agreed to reopen that communication, despite Chinese reluctance to observe behavior in the US that deepens a new cold war with its alliances in the Asia-Pacific region.
“We have to ensure that competition does not lead to conflict and we have to know how to handle the responsibility of that competition,” Biden stressed once seated at the table, surrounded by advisors, after the handshake. “The world looks at us and wants us to work together to face global challenges such as climate change, narcotics or artificial intelligence,” he added.
“Turning our backs against each other is not an option,” Xi responded. “It is not realistic that one wants to remodel the other. “Planet Earth is big enough for the success of both countries,” she remarked.
This is the diplomacy of photography. And it has not been an easy task to achieve that image of both shaking hands, a year after their conversation on the occasion of the G-20 in Indonesia. They hadn’t even spoken on the phone since.
Since that date, things have only gotten worse, especially after the crisis unleashed by the downing of spy balloons flying over the United States, the trade conflict over computer chips, Beijing’s support for Russia in its war in Ukraine with the shipment of technology or the rapid Chinese nuclear development, where both countries try to reach an agreement in the future to exclude artificial intelligence in that area. But Beijing expresses reluctance to negotiate on atomic weapons, considering that its arsenal is still far from what Russia and the United States have.
Just the choreography of the meeting was already a problem. Beijing’s emissaries controlled how much Xi could see through the windows of the Filoli mansion, in San Mateo County, where the meeting took place, lest the persistent, more than repeated, protests against Xi’s policy on human rights or rather about their contempt.
Despite the obstacles, the two leaders were interested in talking. Biden is already immersed in two international conflicts and cannot risk a third. Xi is greatly concerned about the decline of his country’s economy.
Xi demanded that Biden maintain the one-nation policy in Taiwan, while the host demanded that Beijing not interfere in either the island’s or the US elections. He also required him to use his influence over Iran so that Tehran abstain from the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
