Relations between the United States and China have sunk so low that the mere fact that President Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California on Wednesday seems like a breakthrough. Even with few formal agreements announced, dialogue is preferable to name-calling, and regular communication is better than conflict.
But applying such a low bar would sell short the summit’s achievements. Yes, simply restoring in-person talks between the American and Chinese presidents is critical. Mr. Biden later told reporters the two leaders agreed to telephone each other when needed. That’s especially important with Mr. Xi, who, in his third term, has amassed vastly more power than his immediate predecessors and has centralized almost all decision-making. But this summit also brought real progress that shouldn’t be overlooked.
CRUCIALLY, Mr. Biden eschewed the notion of decoupling the U.S. and Chinese economies, something that would be as difficult as it would be economically painful, given how the two are interlinked. Trade measures ought to be limited — to ensure, for example, that China’s military and security apparatus is blocked from access to the United States’ most sensitive technology and that American consumers are not buying products linked to forced labor.
But Mr. Biden is correct in pursuing robust diplomatic and economic engagement with China. Agreeing where the two countries can and disagreeing where they must is better policy than disengagement or, worse, outright confrontation. The United States learned this lesson during the Cold War, ramping up talks with the Soviet Union after the nearly catastrophic Cuban missile crisis, even when the Soviets were more menacing than China is now.
Mr. Xi, who lately has struck a more conciliatory tone after years of combative rhetoric, has domestic reasons for wanting to cool tensions. China’s explosive economic growth of the past few decades has been slowing. Foreign investment in China in the third quarter of this year turned negative for the first time since the 1990s, when records began to be kept. Mr. Xi is responsible for many of the problems; he clung to an impractical “zero covid” isolation strategy for far too long, and his government is bolstering inefficient state companies while restricting private enterprises. But Mr. Xi seems to recognize, as Mr. Biden does, that having the relationship in free fall was in neither country’s interest.
MOST IMPORTANT, Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi agreed to improve bilateral military crisis management by restoring direct ties between the countries’ armed forces. Following recent near misses between American and Chinese ships and aircraft in the contested South China Sea, and an actual collision between a Chinese coast guard vessel and a Philippine ship off the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, the danger of an actual clash, unintended or not, was high.
Also, Taiwan — a bastion of freedom off China’s coast that Beijing claims is a breakaway province, and which has a defensive security relationship with the United States — is scheduled to hold a presidential election next year. China has been ramping up its military maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait to try to influence the outcome. So resuming crisis communications between the United States and China, even as the United States backs up Taiwan, is vital.
— The Washington Post
