Los global leaders have been cited in front of the Bali’s snowy beaches to calm a troubled world but it is improbable that from that paradise that attracts yogis and other seekers of inner peace the recipe for finish the war in ukraine or oil the bilateral relations between China and the United States. Galloping inflation, the threat of the umpteenth global recession, the nuclear alert in Ukraine and North Korea, global warming… The world does not lack problems, so the meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden is expected to, at least, mitigate some.
On G-20 summit in Indonesia planned the morbidity of a meeting of Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky but both have fallen off the cartel in recent weeks. The Russian president resigned and the Ukrainian will participate for video conference. His void will be filled by Xi and Biden, who arrive in Bali at their best. The first received in the recent congress its third and unprecedented term at the head of the party and the results of the elections have smiled at the second when he feared disaster.
The G-20 has had ASEAN, the group of Southeast Asian nations, as its opening act. In Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, Beijing and Washington argued for expand its influence in a key area of the continent. The pulse will continue in Bali. Beijing has confirmed that Xi will meet with his French, Senegalese and Argentine counterpart, but there will be a few more because the pending duties of Chinese diplomacy accumulate after the self-imposed stoppage of the covid. Biden still struggles to regain the center of the global stage that his predecessor disdainedDonald Trump, and rebuilding the bridges of that isolationist policy.
old acquaintances
Biden and Xi are old acquaintances. More than a decade ago, on a trip to Beijing as vice president, the former clarified that “The rise of China is not only positive for China but for the United States and the world order.” Two years ago he called Xi a “thug.” There is no better summary of the derives from bilateral relations. The best that can be said for Xi and Biden is that, unlike the last few years of Trump, they maintain the open communication. Since Biden won the presidential elections they have spoken on the phone five times and this will be their first personal meeting.
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But that fluid communication It has not settled any of the lawsuits. The last call was judged constructive by both parties and a few days later the Speaker of the House of Representatives landed in Taipei, Nancy Pelosi. There is no issue that upsets Beijing more than Taiwan and Washington insists that keep your old policy while he strives to violate it: they are common political delegations in Taipei, gun sales increase in frequency and volume, Biden torpedoes the “strategic ambiguity” that has underpinned peace across the strait for four decades and more and more voices in Washington are calling for the one-China principle.
Biden has anticipated that he will clarify to Xi what his red lines are, ask about the Chinese ones and then determine if they conflict. And if so, “we will think about how to solve it.” China I have asked for respect for the peaceful coexistence and the win-win cooperation for both. Added to the entrenched Taiwanese problem is the US attempt to strangle China’s semiconductor and microchip industry.