The polite way to characterize Joe Biden’s meeting with Xi Jinping is that it cleared a rather low expectations bar but failed to achieve any new heights for the globe’s most important relationship.
Yet the ways in which US President Biden and Chinese leader Xi left the summit in California’s Santa Cruz mountains, their first in a year, offers more insights than what the men discussed – or didn’t broach – in private.
Biden went to the microphones to spin his first meeting with the Chinese leader in a year as “constructive and productive” and “blunt.” Xi went to work — attending a high-stakes dinner with top CEOs who’ve recently grown skittish on investing in China.
The symbolism is clear enough. With one year to go before a bruising 2024 US election, dismal approval ratings and Moody’s Investors Services threatening a downgrade, global investors figure Biden has little left to offer Sino-US dynamics.