RESPECT
Biden welcomed the Chinese leader at the Filoli estate, a country house and well-manicured gardens about 48km south of San Francisco, where they will move later for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
Xi came into the meeting looking for respect from the United States as China’s economy struggles to recover from sluggish growth.
Biden, who had long sought the meeting, struck a welcoming tone aimed at showing respect, and treated him as a major player on global hotspots.
“Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed,” Xi told Biden as they and their delegations sat across from each other at a long table in an ornate conference room.
Biden said the US and China had to ensure that competition between them “does not veer into conflict” and manage their relationship “responsibly.”
After lunch, the leaders took a short walk together in the manicured garden of the mansion following an interaction that lasted around four hours. Biden waved to reporters and gave a two thumbs up sign when asked how the talks were going. “Well,” he said.
Xi told Biden as they began their talks a lot had happened since their last meeting a year ago in Bali. “The world has emerged from the COVID pandemic, but is still under its tremendous impacts. The global economy is recovering, but its momentum remains sluggish.”
He called the US-China relationship “the most important bilateral relationship in the world,” and said he and Biden “shoulder heavy responsibilities for the two peoples, for the world, and for history.”
“For two large countries like China and the United States, turning their back on each other is not an option,” he said. “It is unrealistic for one side to remodel the other, and conflict and confrontation has unbearable consequences for both sides.”
Leaders from the 21-country group APEC – and hundreds of CEOs in San Francisco to court them – are meeting amid relative Chinese economic weakness, Beijing’s territorial feuds with neighbors and a Middle East conflict that is dividing the United States from allies.
Source: CNA
