`I seem to see clearly that we need to establish some safety fences,` US President Joe Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping in his opening remarks at the online summit on November 16.
For his part, Mr. Xi called Mr. Biden an `old friend` and likened the current US-China relationship to `two ships that need to change direction to avoid colliding with each other in the face of ocean waves.`
After three and a half hours of talks, the two leaders did not issue a joint statement like US-China summits over the past decades.
Since then, US-China relations have become increasingly tense as the competition between the two superpowers heats up.
However, the meeting of Mr. Xi and Mr. Biden did not bring any agreement for groups of officials from both sides to conduct further negotiations on strategic nuclear issues and cyber conflict, as the President did.
`We do not expect any breakthrough,` a senior US administration official said after the talks ended.
The screen shows an online meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a restaurant in Beijing on November 16.
Instead, the two sides issued separate statements, emphasizing long-debated issues and the near impossibility of compromise.
Mr. Biden raised concerns about human rights issues in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, as well as China’s `unfair economic and trade policies` that harm American workers, according to the statement.
Meanwhile, Xinhua news agency published a separate statement, saying that Mr. Xi emphasized that some Americans who support Taiwan independence are `playing with fire` and warned that the world is at risk of returning to super confrontation.
`The act of ideological division and forming factions will certainly bring disaster to the world. The consequences of the Cold War are not too far away,` Mr. Xi said, seemingly referring to a pillar of the strategy.
Observers say Mr. Xi’s warning is a reminder that China remains what the Biden administration sees as the biggest geopolitical challenge facing the United States.
`China will become an important part of the international system in the near future and this will not change,` said Jake Sullivan, US National Security Advisor.
The White House had hoped to organize a face-to-face meeting of the two leaders to discuss bilateral issues more thoroughly.
The White House ultimately decided to move forward with the online summit, amid the risk of bilateral tensions escalating until next year, when Xi is busy with the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February and the party
President Biden has repeatedly stated that the US can compete fiercely with China and confront certain issues without causing clashes, whether in the East Sea, East China Sea or cyberspace.
Mr. Biden also wants to hold the meeting after he begins to strengthen his position domestically.
However, in the competition between two superpowers, moves to strengthen the economy in one country can be considered `provocative` actions in the other, according to Steven Lee Myers and David E. Sanger, two
`Both leaders are dissatisfied with the state of the relationship and the other country’s behavior,` said Danny Russell, former assistant secretary of state in the Barack Obama administration.
Experts say that although it cannot heal the huge rift between the two countries, the summit meeting has helped draw `red lines` as well as erect necessary barriers to keep US and Chinese ships from escaping.
`All the right things have been said by both sides to stabilize a relationship that lacks mutual trust,` said Rorry Daniels, a security expert at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy in New York.
Joe Biden, when he was US vice president, and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in August 2011.
While acknowledging fierce competition between the two countries, Mr. Xi said that cooperation on issues such as climate change is a condition for ensuring stability for the entire relationship.
As the two leaders met online, another event took place in Beijing to commemorate the American pilots of the `Flying Tiger Squadron`, who supported China during the war with Japan in 1941-1942.
`The story of the Flying Tigers is the foundation for the deep friendship created by the flesh and blood of the Chinese and Americans,` said Qin Gang, Chinese ambassador to the US.
