At the sidelines of the G20 summit, Xi and Biden met for two hours of intensive talks at a luxury resort hotel in Indonesia. They shook hands, smiled, and greeted each other saying "Good to see you."
As they began their conversation, Biden said he and Xi have a “responsibility" to show that their nations can “manage our differences" and identify areas of mutual cooperation. Xi added that he hoped the pair would “elevate the relationship" between the two countries.
US-China conflict
In recent years, the relations between the US and China have grown more strained under successive American administrations, as economic, trade, human rights and security differences have come to the fore.
As president, Biden has repeatedly taken China to task for human rights abuses against the Uyghur people and other ethnic minorities, crackdowns on democracy activists in Hong Kong, coercive trade practices, military provocations against self-ruled Taiwan and differences over Russia's prosecution of its war against Ukraine. Chinese officials have largely refrained from public criticism of Russia's war, although Beijing has avoided direct support such as supplying arms.
Apart from that, Taiwan has also emerged as one of the most contentious issues between Washington and Beijing.
Though this is the first time they met in person since Biden took office, there have been five phone and video exchanges with Xi in the last 2 years. Biden had last met Xi in 2017, when Biden was vice president to Barack Obama. The last time Xi met a US leader was Donald Trump in 2019.
Biden wants to meet Xi to repair lines of communication
Earlier US officials informed Biden wants his meeting with Xi to repair lines of communication and help establish "guardrails" to keep the superpowers from conflict.
"We are in competition. President Biden embraces that but he wants to make sure that that competition is bounded, that we build guardrails, that we have clear rules of the road and that we do all of that to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict," a senior White House official said.
(With inputs from agencies)
