Comment Joe Biden shook hands with Xi Jinping on that day in 2011, and the two vice presidents walked a red carpet to their countries’ national anthems, until Biden stopped unexpectedly in front of a full-haired Chinese official. “If I had hair like yours, I’d be president,” he snapped, breaking the air of stately diplomacy. Later in the whirlwind trip, Biden made a more serious point: “President Obama and I want to see a rising China. We are not afraid of a rising China.” More than a decade later, the two men are set to meet again after Biden arrives Sunday night in Bali, their first face-to-face meeting since Biden became president and Xi cemented his position as the most powerful Chinese leader in recent memory. Biden certainly hasn’t acquired the thick mane of the Chinese diplomat. His government is now very afraid of the rise of China. And U.S. officials hope that — somehow — the personal connection the two men forged more than a decade ago can soften the often hostile, sometimes volatile and potentially dangerous standoff between two global behemoths. The Biden-Xi meeting is perhaps the most important meeting of a six-day trip abroad that will circle the globe and comes at the heart of the Biden presidency. He’s stepping down just after voters delivered a verdict on his first two years in office, giving him better-than-expected results but possibly costing Democrats control of him. at least one segment of Congress. It also comes as the Pentagon issues fresh warnings that China poses the “most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security.” With conflicting positions on trade, Ukraine and especially Taiwan – and even fears of a global US-China cold war – the pressure on Biden could hardly be greater. The question, diplomats say, is whether their old relationship can be enough to ease the bitterness of the rivalry between the two superpowers. “We’re in an awful dynamic, and what’s being tested is whether there’s enough rapport, enough respect and the ability to listen,” said Daniel Russell, a US diplomat who helped plan Biden’s trip to meet Xi. in 2011. “There’s something there. These guys really know each other. And they have a legacy, a relationship.” He added, “It’s the only thing we have to work with — that’s the only thing we have to do to slow the death spiral of the US-China relationship.” While Biden arrives at the Group of 20 summit in Bali with new political challenges after democratic elections put Republicans on the brink of a House majority, Xi is on the mend, weeks after blasting any opposition to extend his authoritarian rule. he reigns at least another five years. “Xi Jinping feels powerful in his domestic politics,” said John Delury, a professor of Chinese studies at Yonsei University in Seoul. “China is rising and feeling stronger in the relationship, and Xi will bring that to his meeting with Biden.” The tension between the two leaders’ identities added drama to their meeting in 2011 and may do so again this week. One is a devout Catholic Irish-American who prides himself on his middle-class upbringing and cheerful personality. The other is a loyal member of the Communist Party who has cultivated the image of the people’s pragmatist. Both are deep institutionalists who have emerged in diametrically opposed political systems and are now locked in a battle that Biden has cast as an existential test of democracies versus autocracies. They used to refer to each other in glowing terms, but no more. Biden called his one-time friend a “thug.” Xi recently called Biden “my old friend,” but his administration’s declarations of hostility toward the United States are unmistakable.
Planting the seeds of a relationship The hope for a slowdown, however tenuous, comes from a time shortly after Barack Obama took office when the White House wanted to get a feel for Xi, who was a rising figure and presumptive leader of China. but also an enigma. “Xi was a bit of an unknown commodity — he hadn’t served in the kind of position that led to a lot of interaction with the Americans,” said Ben Rhodes, who was Obama’s deputy national security adviser. “There was a real benefit to spending a lot of time with the guy to get his bearings, get to know him and build Obama’s ability to hit the ground running with Xi when he became president.” Biden had only traveled to China twice before, but he immersed himself in the project. He and Si sat down to tea and had many dinners, formal and informal. They held large meetings in Beijing and traveled to Sichuan province to tour a centuries-old irrigation project. They visited a school, where Xi signed basketballs and Biden shot hoops (he successfully scored after half a dozen attempts). Biden made news in Beijing when he went out for a lunch of pork buns, noodles and cucumbers at a small family restaurant (known for its pork intestines, which Biden apparently skipped), along with his granddaughter Naomi, who had study Mandarin. While Chinese leaders have been criticized for being rich and aloof, Biden dug into a meal that cost the equivalent of $12. The action gained popular coverage on Chinese social media, although it may have annoyed its hosts with their more aloof leadership style. But Xi himself quickly showed signs of being a new, less formal type of Chinese leader, if not quite an American-style politician. “It was clear to me that Xi Jinping was trying to learn more from Biden as a peer, about how you do it, what it’s like,” Russell said. “He was ready to start this incredible project that is leading China. We had no idea then of all the plots and ambitions he had in the back of his mind, but he wanted to know more. This is not a person who has had much experience dealing with the world.’ When Xi made a reciprocal visit to the United States six months later, Biden treated him to a State Department luncheon and hosted him for dinner at the Naval Observatory, the vice president’s official residence. Later in the trip, Biden met Xi in Los Angeles, where they toured a school. “What Biden’s trip helped reaffirm for us was that [Xi] he’s ambitious, he’s a bigger personality, and we’re going to have to deal with a different type of Chinese leader,” Rhodes said. “The way Xi conducted himself on those trips, you could tell he was more of a politician than an apparatchik.” Once Xi became president, Biden’s interactions were more limited as Obama assumed the primary role. He traveled to China in 2013 — accompanied by his son Hunter, who met with a Chinese business partner during the trip — and spent more than five hours with Xi. Xi continued to confirm first impressions of his bolder, more personal style: Meeting Obama in 2013 in Rancho Mirage, California, he popped a bottle of hard liquor during a working dinner to toast his president. Like all the stories Biden tells, the ones about him and Xi have gotten more elaborate over time. While they undeniably spent a lot of time together, Biden has dramatically overstated their engagement. He has repeatedly claimed, for example, that they traveled 17,000 miles to China and the United States together. A White House official said Biden was referring to the total distance he traveled to attend the meetings — not necessarily their actual time together — but even that doesn’t fully add up, according to the Washington Post’s Fact Checker. Biden has also pegged the time they spent together when he was vice president at 24 or 25 hours, and as president, Biden spent perhaps 10 more hours on the phone with Xi. However, his estimates of their interactions range far beyond that. In March, he said the two had “over 36 hours of private meetings.” A month later, he put it down as “90-some hours of talking or meeting.” About four hours later, he remarked: “I think it’s now 70-some hours with Xi Jinping.” Since then, he has reported their meetings on 12 occasions, often alternating between “76 hours” and “78 hours,” though he recently shaved off 10 hours and said they had spent 68 hours together. Biden also often says he’s spent more time with Xi than any other leader, which is also probably far-fetched. Obama spent significant time with Xi after Biden’s initial visits, and foreign policy analysts say Russian President Vladimir Putin has almost certainly been with Xi more than any American president. Xi is a central character in one of the most frequent stories Biden tells. He has recounted it at a General Motors plant in Detroit. an infrastructure event in Rosemount, Minn. White House Hanukkah Menorah Lighting Ceremony. an Equal Pay Day event. concentration of American troops in Poland. and a reception for Hispanic Heritage Month. In the anecdote, Biden recalls being with Xi on the Tibetan Plateau when Xi asked him, “Can you define America for me?” Biden says he replied, “I can, in one word: potential.” Telling the story in July 2021, Biden elaborated: “Opportunity — it’s what America is built on. It is one of the reasons why we are sometimes thought of as somewhat selfish. We believe that anything is possible in America.” Aides who were with Biden say they don’t recall the exact exchange, but that it would have been consistent with the leaders’ spontaneous views conversations meant to explore each other’s worldviews. “They were unloading and trying to explain and convey what kind of country we are, what we believe?” Russell said. Biden worked to distract Xi by quoting William Butler Yeats or offering an aphorism he said came from his father: “The only thing worse than war is unintentional war.”
“We are not old friends” But any ties have frayed over the years as China…
