Few leaders can claim the familiarity Biden and Xi have with each other – the first of their many meetings came in 2011, just before then-Vice-President Biden was asked by President Obama to try to establish a rapport with the incoming Chinese leader.
But a great deal has changed since those friendly, exploratory encounters, a time when Biden said the US did not fear but welcomed the rise of China.
Back then differences over human rights and trade could be managed more easily behind the broader consensus over issues like the need to promote economic recovery from the 2008 financial crash and countering terrorism.
Over his ten years in power Xi Jinping has turned out to be a more ruthless, authoritarian and nationalist leader than expected, determined to restore his country’s status as a world power and to resist what he sees as US efforts to contain and encircle China, perhaps eventually even to overthrow its one-party system.
As president Biden’s descriptions of Xi have been much harsher: “He doesn’t have a democratic bone in his body”.
So what hope, in this frosty superpower stand-off, is there for any progress at this first face-to-face meeting of the Biden presidency?
Biden seems to be putting his faith in straight-talking – outlining clearly what the US red lines are over most of all Taiwan, but also the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nuclear weapons and many other disagreements – and in using the residue of their past, easier familiarity to rebuild trust, and in a conviction that both sides need and want to avoid a dangerous escalation.
He is a stronger figure now after the results of the US mid-term elections, though will still be viewed by the Chinese side as a leader with probably only two years left in power. He has insisted that for all his willingness to listen, he will not be offering concessions at this meeting.
And Xi, after entrenching his power indefinitely after last month’s Communist Party Congress? His goals, and readiness to overcome his mistrust of the US are much harder to guess.
Source: BBC