The mild cold of Biden is important here keeping in view how paranoid the Chinese premier is concerning COVID-19 and his paranoia can be understood by China’s Zero COVID Policy under which it has taken several stringent measures. But here, it illustrates that China is willing to go the extra mile and both the leaders are intending to have a better working relationship, if not the normalization of ties in its entirety. The meeting could prove to be a much-needed icebreaking session between the two countries for moving ahead on key issues, particularly, trade, and Taiwan and improving the bilateral relationship which has hit an all-time low in decades.
With China being closer to Russia, the US President has effectively used the chance to send out a message to the Kremlin that the Russia-Ukraine war should not reach the point where it transforms into a nuclear war. It also points to apprehensions of the US and its allies in the west that Russia could be very well ready for what is being referred to as a “dirty bomb.” In this regard, Biden has succeeded in getting Xi to agree that the nuclear war should not be fought at any cost apart from noting their opposition to any such attempts. The meeting—which was held cordially—might augur well for global peace and stability, but the factor of India-China tensions, eased up to a great extent now, along LAC must not be set oddly out. There is also a hope that Biden must have defended India’s concerns over what China has been doing in eastern Ladakh which poses a serious threat to regional peace and security.
Concerning Taiwan, Biden did not shy away from bringing up the contentious issue and underlined that China’s Taiwan policy is aggressive. But, again, China has stuck to its line and has put the blame entirely on the US for crossing the line, noting that the first red line should not be crossed in bilateral ties. For the US, the 3-hour long meeting between the leaders of the two superpowers has turned out to be a win-win situation, because, first, it has got China on board for the resumption of Climate Change Talks, put on hold by China as protest, second, a clear message has been sent out to Russia as a hint to fall back and find a solution through talks—and this message has gone with China on board, which means that it carries more weight, third, the US-China trade which has been marred by tensions for the last some time, might end up seeing a de-freeze.
