Biden says for China, we must prevent competition from becoming conflict

At the G20 Summit, Biden greeted Xi with a smile and said he wanted US and China to “manage our differences”

A picture of Xi and Biden at the G20 Summit is streaming heavily through social media due to the simmering tensions and coldness between the two countries.  Biden said they must “prevent competition from becoming conflict.”  On his part Xi said, “The world has come to a crossroads,” promising a “candid” discussion of issues that have torn relations between the world’s two top powers. “The world expects that China and the United States will properly handle the relationship,” he said.

China, Russia-Ukraine, and the USA

The G20 summit starts on Tuesday, with food and fuel prices skyrocketing globally.  The raging war between Russia and Ukraine is not calming down with the gloomy overshadowing threat of nuclear war frightening the world. Russian President Vladimir Putin was not present at the Summit.  British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, writing in the newspaper The Telegraph, called Russia a “rogue state” and slammed its president, Vladimir Putin, for staying away.

Conflict over Russia’s war on Ukraine and stewing strains between the US and China are proving to be dire environments for world leaders gathering in Indonesia’s tropical Bali island for a summit of the Group of 20 biggest economies starting Tuesday. Chinese officials have condemned the Biden administration’s decision last month to block exports of advanced computer chips to China a national security move that bolsters US competition against Beijing.

Meanwhile, heightened energy and food prices have affected both rich and poor G20 members – and both have suffered. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated on Monday that ending the conflict is “a moral imperative and the single best thing we can do for the global economy.”

When the current agreement expires on November 19, Russia will be under pressure to extend a deal that allows Ukrainian grain and fertilizer shipments through the Black Sea.

US and China To Work on Peace

Whether US and China would take the G20 opportunity to extend hands of friendship after falling relations between the countries after Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit is yet to be seen. Reports had said that while Biden will make evident that the US is not seeking a conflict with Beijing during his meeting with Xi Jinping in Bali, he will push Washington’s commitment to maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan waters.

Guardrails” and “Clear Rules of the Road

Biden had earlier said he expected to establish “guardrails” for relations between the world’s two largest economies as they compete for international primacy.

The meeting between the US and China on the sidelines of the G20 summit is the first between the two since Biden took office. Xi arrived in Bali on Monday afternoon, only his second overseas trip since the pandemic, following a September trip to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

The rivalry between the world’s two largest economies has heightened dramatically as Beijing has grown more powerful and assertive in its desire to replace the US-led order that has prevailed since World War II.

Biden has said the meeting should establish each country’s “red lines”, and the overarching goal will be setting “guardrails” and “clear rules of the road”, a senior White House official told reporters hours before the summit.

“We do all of this to prevent competition from devolving into conflict.” Biden is expected to press China to rein in ally North Korea after a record-breaking string of missile tests raised fears that Pyongyang will conduct its seventh nuclear test soon, AFP reported.

Xi and Biden have spoken via videoconference five times since the US president took office, but the Chinese president’s most recent in-person meeting with Trump occurred in 2019.