Amid tensions at Xi-Biden meeting, some hope

Behind the smiles and

the handshakes

at the meeting between United States President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Indonesia on Monday – on the eve of the Group of 20 (G-20) Summit – was a sense of the tension that continues between the two superpowers. Both arrived eager to repair the terrible state of bilateral relations, and they indeed managed a cordiality lacking in recent diplomacy.

But they could not escape the reality that China and the US find themselves in. Issues such as Taiwan, export bans and trade sanctions are set to continue to hamper the bilateral relationship, with a negative knock-on effect for the rest of Asia as the world’s two largest economies decouple and military tensions persist.