The Dragon in San Francisco
Biden-Xi Summit
The Dragon in San Francisco marks the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders after a year, occurring on Wednesday, November 15, on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. This is Xi Jinping’s first visit to the United States since 2017 and the first in-person dialogue between the two leaders since last November.
Exactly a year after their last in-person meeting, as Washington-Beijing relations have reached a low point, President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met on Wednesday in San Francisco on the sidelines of the summit to hold talks.
Of course, this summit will not end the stalemate between the world’s two largest economies, but it is still a meeting that almost everyone was waiting for, indicating that both leaders, despite trade tensions, reciprocal export restrictions, and uncertainties and challenges regarding Taiwan’s future, want to keep communication channels open at the highest levels.
Officials who planned and organized this summit have tried to emphasize that the United States and China are more rivals than enemies. ‘We have a $700 billion trade relationship,’ Gina Marie Raimondo, the Secretary of Commerce, stated recently, adding that we can claim that a wide range of trade relations between the two countries have not been affected by export restrictions.
Jake Sullivan, the U.S. National Security Advisor, described the two countries as economically interdependent, and Janet Yellen, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, warned that the decoupling of the U.S. economy from China would have significant global consequences. Thus, we see a conciliatory tone that actually reflects Xi Jinping’s tone in his meeting a few days ago with a U.S. Congressional delegation visiting Beijing, where the Chinese leader said there are a thousand reasons to improve U.S.-China relations and no reason to worsen them.
In Search of Common Ground
In fact, the expectations of both countries from the leaders’ meeting on Wednesday were relatively low, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t expected to yield tangible results. There were many issues on the negotiation table, from the Ukraine war to the conflict in the Gaza Strip, Taiwan, and North Korea, and then combating fentanyl trafficking and challenges and bans related to artificial intelligence.
But most importantly, as predicted by Axios, the American news website, the two countries announced the resumption of military communications, which had been halted by Beijing after Nancy Pelosi, the then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visited Taiwan in August 2022. Biden, for his part, can offer China’s struggling economy an opportunity for direct investment from the United States. Overall, one of the White House’s main goals is to stabilize conditions for responsible competition with China.
Rival, Not Enemy
The meeting between the U.S. President and the Chinese leader is not the end of the superpower rivalry, but a glimmer of hope that this rivalry will not lead to conflict. The planet is big enough for both countries to succeed. If Xi Jinping’s statement at the end of the meeting with Joe Biden does not indicate the end of the rivalry between China and the United States, it can show that there is a willingness on both sides to warm relations.
This is actually confirmed by the announcement of the resumption of military communications and various other agreements in areas that have recently become sources of tension. The first and foremost agreement is to take measures to combat the trafficking of fentanyl to the United States, a disaster that has led to an increase in deaths from overdoses of this opioid in the country.
In this face-to-face meeting that lasted over four hours and was anticipated, the two leaders discussed the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel. According to reports, Joe Biden asked his Chinese counterpart to use his influence on Iran to prevent escalation and expansion of the conflict in the region.
The leaders of the two countries also agreed to cooperate on global issues like artificial intelligence and combating climate change, yet confirmed that the real red line in bilateral relations remains Taiwan. In this regard, Joe Biden, in his press conference, limited himself to emphasizing the One China policy, while Xi declared he does not intend to annex the island through military means and clarified that Beijing hopes for a peaceful reunification.
In summary, this summit achieved the predetermined goal of reiterating the desire that competition between the United States and China will not turn into conflict. Biden emphasized that the world expects both sides to manage competition responsibly, saying, ‘We have established a direct communication line that each of us can pick up the phone and immediately contact the other.’
Combating Fentanyl
At the San Francisco summit, Biden and Xi agreed to stop the production and export of fentanyl, a drug 50 times stronger than heroin and the main cause of overdose deaths among Americans aged 18 to 49. This drug was initially approved by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as a painkiller and anesthetic.
Now it’s a smuggling issue that the Washington government cannot stop, leading to a public health emergency in the United States. Bloomberg reported that under this agreement, China commits to prosecuting chemical companies that illegally export this drug and its precursors to Latin America.
In return, it is unclear what other promises the White House has made to Beijing, except to commit to lifting restrictions on companies that comply with the agreements. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug-related deaths have more than tripled from 2016 to 2021, and last year, the United States reported 110,000 overdose deaths, more than two-thirds of which were related to fentanyl.
This agreement is a significant victory for President Biden, who, considering the 2024 presidential election, has made combating the synthetic opioid epidemic one of his administration’s priorities.
Xi is a Dictator
Immediately after Biden described his conversation with the Chinese President as honest and constructive, his surprising response to a journalist at the press conference quickly drew international media attention. When a journalist asked if he still refers to Xi as a dictator as he did in the past, Biden said, ‘Well, to some extent, yes, in the sense that he runs a communist country based on a governance system completely different from ours.’
Heavy words that might jeopardize the small openings created in the meeting between the two leaders, but Beijing did not remain silent for long, speaking of political manipulation and calling Biden’s remarks a very incorrect definition. Mao Ning, the spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that China firmly opposes this type of rhetoric.
A much warmer welcome was given to the Chinese leader at a dinner with entrepreneurs, businessmen, and representatives of major American companies, including Apple, Pfizer, and Tesla. According to the Financial Times, the Chinese President delivered a message to American companies that received strong applause, saying, ‘China is a big market and a friend.’
De-escalation Continues
The meeting between Biden and Xi, while helping to enhance dialogue and cooperation, was also an opportunity for both sides to highlight their differences, which seem to go beyond the agreements reached and will actually determine the relations between the two countries in the coming years.
One of these points of contention is the issue of Taiwan, which has always been defined by Xi, according to previous news and reports, as the biggest and potentially most dangerous one. Therefore, it is likely that we will witness periods of tension and other disagreements between the two countries in the future. In fact, there is nothing new, but the important thing is that talks continue to prevent the situation from deteriorating.
From this perspective, the main outcome of this summit was the decision to resume military communications between the two sides, which had been halted by China after Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022. The Economist says perhaps the best thing that can be said about this summit is that it took place and promises to revive the habit of dialogue, considering a tumultuous year with presidential elections in Taiwan and the U.S., but whether this dialogue will stop where the previous conversation failed, only the next crisis will tell.
The long-awaited meeting in San Francisco between Xi and Biden took place as expected. No other agreements were signed besides the ones predicted in recent days regarding fentanyl, resuming military communications, and cooperation to combat climate change and manage artificial intelligence.
However, Biden openly declared that the two countries are in competition, and the United States will also collaborate with its international allies to protect its industry. Xi Jinping also recalled some classic aspects of his political action, emphasizing that China will follow its own economic and political development model. Ultimately, it can be concluded that this summit was primarily about finding ways to manage relations between the two countries to avoid diplomatic incidents and reiterate fixed points within the framework of structural competition.