By AAMER MADHANI, COLLEEN LONG and DIDI TANG
WOODSIDE, Calif. — President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping opened their first face-to-face meeting in more than a year Wednesday with a solid handshake ahead of talks with far-reaching implications for a world grappling with economic cross currents, wars in the Middle East and Europe, tensions in Taiwan and more.
The two leaders, meeting at a bucolic country estate outside San Francisco, are looking to get communication back on track after a tumultuous year and to show the world that while they are global economic competitors, they’re not locked in a winner-take-all faceoff.
Biden arrived first and awaited Xi, who got out of a black car and took Biden’s hand in a warm, hand-over-hand clasp before the two leaders walked a red carpet through the estate’s grand entrance with a China flag on one side and a U.S. flag on the other. Five Marines stood in formation.
The two kicked off talks discussing how important and necessary the relationship is between the two nations, particularly as the world recovers from the global pandemic. Biden said the goal of the summit was for the leaders to “understand each other,” and Xi said they bear “heavy responsibilities” for the world.
“For two large countries like China, United States, turning their back on each other is not an option,” Xi said through a translator. “Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed.”
Biden noted that the two leaders have known each other for years but haven’t always agreed, and stressed how important their in-person meeting was Wednesday.
“It’s paramount that you and I understand each other clearly, leader-to-leader, with no misconceptions or miscommunication,” Biden said.
Since they last met, already fraught ties have been further strained by the U.S. downing of a Chinese spy balloon that had traversed the continental U.S. and by differences on the self-ruled island of Taiwan, China’s hacking…
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