Back in November, before the latest downward spiral in US-China ties, Xi Jinping cast himself as a statesman in a meeting with Joe Biden.
Saying both nations need “a responsibility for history,” Xi appeared to play ball with US calls to “compete vigorously” with China while establishing “guardrails” to avoid conflict. After speaking with Biden for more than three hours in Indonesia, Xi said “competition should be about learning from each other” and referred to agreements around Taiwan as “the most important guardrail.”
