President Joe Biden and Premier Xi JinPing of China met for the first time in over a year at a villa in San Francisco for the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation summit (Nov 15 to 17). The initial talks have gone smoothly with both sides issuing positive statements after day one talks, highlighting common grounds reached during the talk.
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Biden and Xi find room for cooperation
The two leaders pledged to avoid dangerous rifts and promote a stable US – China ties as it benefits the world. Biden said to Mr. Xi, “I value our conversation because I think it’s paramount that you and I understand each other clearly, leader to leader, with no misconceptions or miscommunication.” To which Xi agreed saying, “Conflict and confrontation has unbearable consequences for both sides.”
They have agreed to restore military to military communication that was suspended last year when the then Speaker of the House of Representative Nancy Pelosi made a visit to Taiwan.
China has also agreed to implement new steps to slow down the flow of the drug fentanyl in the US. This includes urging chemical companies to curtail shipments to Latin America as production of fentanyl is completed in Mexico and then smuggled into the US. China has also started sharing information about suspected trafficking with international databases.
The two countries also found common ground on climate change. Being the world’s biggest carbon emitters, they have agreed on further measures on the matter. This includes co-operating to slow down methane emissions and to support global renewable energy efforts to be tripled by 2030.
What they didn’t agree on
China objected to the export controls imposed by the US on advanced technology like semiconductors as a means to suppress China.
Biden failed to garner support from China to broker peace in the Middle East, especially to put pressure on Iran to not escalate the Israel-Hamas war. So far China has taken a more cautious approach, as it historically has done regarding any Middle East situations. China initially takes a cautious stance then calls for peace and condemns violence.
The two countries didn’t elaborate much on the artificial intelligence plan, whether to ban the use of AI to manage nuclear arsenals. China has shown that it is receptive to renouncing AI command and control systems for nuclear weapons, although no common ground has been reached with the US yet. Officials have agreed to have commit experts to discuss the safety and risk issues associated with artificial intelligence.
The Taiwan issue has also remained unaddressed. The countries reiterated their old talking points on the issue. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying stated on a post on twitter that the US should support the peaceful reunification of China and not support Taiwan independence and stop arming Taiwan.
China portrays itself as a friend to foreign companies to standing ovations
Top American business executives from different sectors like banking and technology were also present at the forum like Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Albert Bourla of Pfizer and Ray Dalio of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, and more.
Xi’s message to the leaders present was that China’s market is open for foreign business. China’s economy is struggling with foreign direct investments hitting a 25 year low for the country, making this meeting essential not only to bring more business to China but to portray a good image back home.
Western businesses may not be investing more in China but the country is still enormously important for any multinational corporation, signaling that they are not ready to pull out of the Chinese market.
