Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023 2 a.m.
Americans should take pride in President Joe Biden’s efforts to improve U.S. relations with China’s President Xi Jinping during the Asia-Pacific summit.
Two weeks ago, Biden and Xi met at a private estate in Northern California with a simple goal of opening up dialogue that has been all but closed off for the past year. China’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea have made the two superpowers’ relationship tense for years. But until recently the lines of communication had remained open, especially between military leaders who couldn’t afford “misunderstandings” about practice exercises or the movement of highly visible assets.
Things cooled in the summer of 2022 when Biden took bold action to protect American interests in manufacturing and technology via the passage of the CHIPS Act. By all measures CHIPS has been a resounding success and a boon to the U.S. economy. Along with the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, Biden has successfully restricted China’s ability to import and/or steal advanced U.S. technology and contributed to the slowing of the Chinese economy.
Meanwhile, the U.S. economy is roaring with thousands of good-paying jobs created across the country, including here in Nevada. Some of those jobs and investments were previously located in China.
Five months after CHIPS went into law, communications effectively ceased following China’s suspected launch of spy balloons that drifted over the United States, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a scheduled diplomatic trip to China just hours before he was scheduled to depart.
China’s repeated saber rattling over Taiwan, its financial support of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and it’s shockingly confrontational attitude toward the U.S. all served to significantly chill relationships. After years of Chinese moves that damaged the U.S. economy, it appeared emboldened to consider military confrontation too.
Now, with war still raging in Ukraine, a new war in Gaza, the Chinese economy continuing to slow, and dangerous drugs like fentanyl becoming more common in the U.S., neither country can afford to continue giving each other the silent treatment or gamble that relations will deteriorate further. Given each country’s massive sphere of influence, the risk was simply too great and the stakes of the Asia-Pacific summit were high.
Fortunately, Biden was up to the challenge and secured important promises from his Chinese counterpart.
Among the concessions Xi made were a promise to increase cooperation around climate change; share data, research and policy recommendations regarding the risks of artificial intelligence, and reopen the previously standard lines of communication between military leaders. Xi also agreed to a “red line” for communication regarding potential emergencies in the air and water surrounding Taiwan — an issue of particular importance after several near collisions between Chinese and American assets in the region.
Clearly recognizing the impact of Biden’s economic policies on China’s deteriorating economy, Xi also sought to redefine China’s business relationship with the United States. At a dinner with financial, business and industry leaders hosted by the summit, Xi said he hopes to be “a partner and a friend” to the U.S., instead of an adversary.
Perhaps most importantly, Xi agreed to work with Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to launch a new and ambitious effort to tackle the epidemic of fentanyl and other opioids that are devastating families and communities around the world, including here in the U.S.
Opioids kill more than 107,000 Americans each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than two-thirds of those deaths involve synthetic drugs like fentanyl, which is significantly stronger than heroin, morphine and other “hard” drugs.
Getting China on board as a partner in the fight against fentanyl is essential to successfully combating the deadly drug, as nearly all of the chemicals needed to produce it originate in China before they are imported by Mexican drug cartels.
The concessions brokered by Biden at the Asia-Pacific summit should be celebrated by Americans of all political persuasions. Biden created the circumstances for the negotiations through years of effective leadership that forced Xi to come to the table from a position of relative weakness rather than strength. Biden served the American people by creating an opportunity for dialogue in which Xi could save face while conceding to numerous U.S. policy requests.
Despite all this, Biden clearly understands the simple fact that China is a profound global adversary of the U.S. and a bad actor on the international stage. There are enormous issues still to address: vast economic concerns, China’s disposition toward Taiwan, its menacing posture in the South China Sea, its eager support of pariah regimes around the world, its suppression of freedom of its own people, its violation of international intellectual property laws, and many more.
No, China is not America’s friend. Not yet. And it will it will take years of positive action on China’s part to ease concerns over its intentions. But China is a fact of life in global affairs, and creating a climate in which China felt it urgently needed to return to the negotiating table is a vital first step and testimony to the Biden administration’s successful leadership in handling one of our most dangerous rivals. It will be a long road, but each step forward is welcome.
