BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI
- Biden and Xi sought to smooth frayed relations at their meeting on during the APEC summit.
- There remain fears that rivalry between the superpowers could result in direct conflict.
- Despite some progress Wednesday, deep differences remain.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping was keen to stress the potentially dire consequences of US-China tensions after his first meeting with Joe Biden in more than a year.
"If we regard each other as the biggest rival, the most significant geopolitical challenge, and an ever-pressing threat, it will inevitably lead to wrong policies, wrong actions, and wrong results," Xi told an audience at the APEC summit in San Francisco.
"China is willing to be a partner and friend of the United States," he added.
Xi seemed keen in the speech to find common ground after months of worsening relations between the superpowers. But despite the rhetoric, vast differences remain between the military, technological, and economic titans.
These could even result in direct conflict, say analysts, a concern diminished but not assuaged by Wednesday's meeting.
"Any reduction in tensions or false promises from the Chinese government is unlikely to change the nature and structure of their strategy for global competition and conflict with the US and our Allies," Jonathan Ward, CEO of the Atlas Group, told Business Insider ahead of the meeting.
Xi seeks to woo US business leaders
Xi's remarks to American business leaders in the wake of the meeting with Biden were an abrupt shift in tone for the Chinese leader, who usually seeks to pin blame on the US for global conflicts and instability.
The Chinese leader made his pitch at a moment of rare weakness for the Chinese economy and is reportedly keen to secure US investment to help it rebound.
At the meeting on the fringes of the APEC summit in San Francisco, Xi and Biden found important common ground on issues including the climate crisis, fentanyl trafficking, and reestablishing military communications cut off after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan last year.
It was a success of sorts, with expectations having been set deliberately low before the meeting, which took place against a backdrop of mutual recriminations and accusations on issues including Taiwanese independence and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Clashes over Taiwan, Ukraine, and the Middle East likely
Analysts say that core differences remain between the superpowers, and Wednesday's meeting marked an improvement in tone though perhaps not on diplomatic substance.
As notable as the successes, were the areas where Biden and Xi failed to reach an agreement. Before the meeting, officials had hyped the prospect of the leaders agreeing on new restrictions on the use of AI in nuclear weapons control systems, but this failed to materialize.
On the vexed issue of Taiwanese autonomy, which Biden has previously said the US would use force to defend (a claim later rowed back by the White House), there were no substantive new agreements.
According to The New York Times, Xi in the meeting called on Biden to stop arming Taiwan, a move Biden is unlikely to make as he believes that doing so could incite Chinese aggression, analysts have told Insider.
Across the globe, China and the US are backing opposing sides in global conflicts, with China backing Russia in its war in Ukraine and the US Kyiv, and China offering support for Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war, and the US backing Israel's attacks on Gaza.
And in the South China Sea, a region where China has sought to establish its dominance, Chinese warplanes have sought to intimidate US fighter jets.
On none of these global flashpoints were the leaders able to make concrete diplomatic progress.
In a mark of the gulf that remains between the leaders, only hours after the carefully choreographed meeting Biden described the Chinese leader as a "dictator" to reporters, sparking a furious response from China.
Though Xi may be keen to cool hostilities with the US as he seeks to boost the ailing Chinese economy, he likely remains undeterred in his ambition to supplant the US as the world's key superpower. The US, meanwhile, remains determined to push back.