When Joe Biden and Xi Jinping meet in Bali on Monday, it will be the most significant test yet of whether the two leaders can reverse what has been a dramatic decline in US-China relations.After a rocky four years under Donald Trump, China hoped Biden would ease the turbulence. But relations have plummeted to their lowest point since the countries normalised relations in 1979 as they forged a new path in the face of a common rival in the Soviet Union.
“More than four decades later, in the absence of a similar common strategic rival, the growing competition and intensifying set of security, technological and ideological differences are overwhelming the relationship and risk moving the US and China on to a long, frigid course,” said Paul Haenle of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who was a China adviser to George W Bush and Barack Obama.
The US is concerned about issues including China’s military activity around Taiwan, its rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal and its refusal to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Beijing accuses the US of emboldening pro-independence forces in Taiwan, creating quasi-alliances such as the “Quad” to counter China, and trying to contain China with advanced chip-related export controls.