Hi folks, I am doing a special edition today only looking at the readouts from the Chinese and American sides after the Biden-Xi meeting in San Francisco. This seems to have been a productive meeting, with the big outcome being the resumption of military-to-military communication. Beyond that, what’s important is that both sides reiterated a desire to continue to engage and talk to each other across different domains. There is clearly intent, for the moment, to engender some degree of predictability and stability. In that sense, this meeting saw continuity in the effort that has been underway since May to establish guardrails. To that extent, the outcomes of this meeting are a win for the logic of American diplomacy on the direction of bilateral relations. That said, I think viewing it through such a zero-sum perspective is not useful analytically. Considering China’s strategic interests, its deepening economic challenges, and the potential volatility in American policy owing to domestic politics over the next year or so mean that predictability and stability in ties is useful. That said, I don’t think the meeting changes the fundamental direction of China-US ties.
Analysing the Outcomes of the Biden-Xi Meeting
Analysing the Outcomes of the Biden-Xi…
Analysing the Outcomes of the Biden-Xi Meeting
Hi folks, I am doing a special edition today only looking at the readouts from the Chinese and American sides after the Biden-Xi meeting in San Francisco. This seems to have been a productive meeting, with the big outcome being the resumption of military-to-military communication. Beyond that, what’s important is that both sides reiterated a desire to continue to engage and talk to each other across different domains. There is clearly intent, for the moment, to engender some degree of predictability and stability. In that sense, this meeting saw continuity in the effort that has been underway since May to establish guardrails. To that extent, the outcomes of this meeting are a win for the logic of American diplomacy on the direction of bilateral relations. That said, I think viewing it through such a zero-sum perspective is not useful analytically. Considering China’s strategic interests, its deepening economic challenges, and the potential volatility in American policy owing to domestic politics over the next year or so mean that predictability and stability in ties is useful. That said, I don’t think the meeting changes the fundamental direction of China-US ties.