Biden Wants a Good Summit. Xi Needs One
The Chinese leader is still playing coy about next week’s meeting with his US counterpart. He’d be wise to make it a success.
Xi could use a boost politically.
Photographer: Suo Takekuma-Pool/Getty Images
The year’s most crucial summit — between the US and Chinese leaders on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco next week — still hasn’t been officially confirmed. Chinese President Xi Jinping may be playing coy as a negotiating tactic, to suggest that his US counterpart Joe Biden needs the meeting more than he does. In fact, the opposite is true.
Politically at least, the meeting holds little upside for Biden. The China issue has become so toxic in Washington that any diplomatic outreach — even amid the administration’s otherwise tough policies — can be cast as appeasement. Biden deserves credit for nonetheless seeking to stabilize the world’s most important bilateral relationship.