US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met on Wednesday (November 15) for the first time in a year with the aim of easing tensions between the two global superpowers on various issues, such as armed conflicts, intelligence artificial and drug trafficking.

Joe Biden welcomed Xi Jinping to the Filoli estate, located nearly fifty kilometers south of San Francisco, in the wealthy town of Woodside, where a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum is being held ( APEC).

At the start of their meeting, the American president declared that the United States and China must ensure that their competition does not “turn into conflict” and manage their relationship in a “responsible” manner, believing that issues such as climate change and artificial intelligence demanded their joint attention.

Speaking via the social network X after this first discussion session and before a lunch with his Chinese counterpart, Joe Biden said it was vital that the two leaders get along.

“There are critical global challenges that require our joint leadership. And today we made real progress,” he wrote.

The White House reported in a statement that the two presidents had “frank and constructive” exchanges on a range of bilateral and global issues.

Xi Jinping told Joe Biden at the start of their meeting that a lot had happened since their previous summit last year in Bali. “The world has emerged from the Covid pandemic but still remains under its considerable impact. The global economy is recovering but its momentum remains slow,” the Chinese president said.

“Turning our backs is not an option.”

Describing China-US relations as “the most important bilateral relations in the world”, Xi Jinping said it was up to him and Joe Biden to “take important responsibilities for the two peoples, for the world and for the story “.

“For two big countries like China and the United States, turning their backs on each other is not an option,” said the Chinese president, adding that it was “unrealistic” for one side to “reshape” the other and emphasizing the serious consequences of a confrontation for the two countries.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing increased at the start of the year when the United States shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon above its territory, an incident regretted by China which rejected the American accusations.

High-level ministerial meetings have been organized in recent months with the aim of avoiding an escalation of tensions. The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, notably visited China in June.

Joe Biden, campaigning for a second term, and Xi Jinping, faced with a degraded economic and social situation in China, ultimately have an interest in keeping the rivalry under control throughout a potentially tumultuous 2024, with an election presidential election in the United States and Taiwan.

The status of the island, of which Beijing claims sovereignty and to which Washington provides substantial military assistance, remains a central subject of friction.

Communications et fentanyl

Joe Biden “will make it clear (…) that we do not support the independence of Taiwan” and “that we do not want the status quo to change unilaterally, and certainly not by force”, indicated a spokesperson for the White House, John Kirby, reaffirming the deliberately ambiguous position of the United States.

Washington also asks China, an ally of Iran and Russia, not to aggravate major international crises: the conflict between Israel and Hamas as well as the war in Ukraine.

The American president wants above all to restore military communications, known as “mil-mil”, between the two nuclear powers, suspended for more than a year. A senior US official indicated that the two leaders could decide on “preliminary steps” in this direction on Wednesday.

He also indicated that Washington hoped to seal “progress” in the fight against fentanyl trafficking at the meeting. This powerful synthetic opiate produced with chemical compounds originating in particular from China causes tens of thousands of overdoses each year in the United States.