--- title: Xi and Biden Must Forge a New U.S.–China Relationship description: The U.S. and China must work together in key global areas—or risk disaster. canonical: https://time.com/6334583/xi-jinping-joe-biden-new-relationship-essay/ author: Jake Werner article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-11-14T11:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:28:24.888Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Xi and Biden Must Forge a New U.S.–China Relationship og:description: The U.S. and China must work together in key global areas—or risk disaster. og:url: https://time.com/6334583/xi-jinping-joe-biden-new-relationship-essay/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c116160d2422587/698a4249e6e84a72fe2b0b1a/GettyImages-1353606251.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: U.S. President Biden And China's President Xi Meet In Virtual Summit "n og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Xi and Biden Must Forge a New U.S.–China Relationship twitter:description: The U.S. and China must work together in key global areas—or risk disaster. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c116160d2422587/698a4249e6e84a72fe2b0b1a/GettyImages-1353606251.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Xi and Biden Must Overcome the Hawks to Forge a New U.S.–China Relationship > Sponsored content. 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U.S. President Joe Biden says the aim of his meeting with China's President Xi Jinping is to "better understand each other."_ by [Jake Werner](https://time.com/author/jake-werner/) ## Jake Werner Nov 14, 2023 11:00 AM UTC U.S. President Joe Biden says the aim of his meeting with China's President Xi Jinping is to "better understand each other." by [Jake Werner](https://time.com/author/jake-werner/) ## Jake Werner Nov 14, 2023 11:00 AM UTC As President Joe Biden prepares for his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco on Nov. 15, he faces an epochal choice. Will the U.S. government bow before belligerent demands for intensifying confrontation and exclusion, or will it seek to deepen the recent diplomatic opening between the two countries? On one side stand critics of the Biden administration, such as the Republican members of the House of Representatives select committee on China, who [demand](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24138795-11823-letter-to-potus-apec-letter) that discussions with China be ended unless they result in complete surrender to their demands. Those calling for confrontation seem heedless of the terrible consequences now looming from a conflict pitting the world’s two most powerful countries against each other. On the other side is the potential for a mutually beneficial modus vivendi between our nations, which could establish a newly inclusive and prosperous global system. Though the Biden Administration has begun to explore the possibilities of diplomacy with China, it also finds itself caught in zero-sum formulations of the relationship that are likely to strengthen restrictive and exclusionary measures at the expense of both competitive and cooperative opportunities. U.S. debate today conceals the dangers of our current China policy by terming every antagonistic policy a form of “competition.” In reality, [exclusion is the opposite of competition](https://quincyinst.org/report/competition-versus-exclusion-in-u-s-china-relations-a-choice-between-stability-and-conflict/). Where competition is a relationship between two parties that necessarily entails connection and has the potential to be carried on in healthy ways, exclusion is an attempt to sever both competitive and cooperative connections. Unlike competition, the victim immediately understands exclusion to be an illegitimate form of aggression. If the victim is strong enough to fight back and the domain from which they are being expelled is consequential enough, conflict is a likely outcome. American leaders are gambling that they can exclude China from some of the most lucrative and strategically important sectors in the global economy without pulling the world into conflict. The bet is that, forced into a permanently subordinate position, China’s leaders will accept the U.S. version of a rules-based international order and compete vigorously within its limits. Beginning under Trump, then expanded and systematized under Biden, the U.S. has assembled an increasingly imposing body of exclusionary policies aimed at cutting Chinese businesses out of crucial technologies and preventing high value Chinese companies from accessing consumers and investment from the rich countries. U.S. leaders are exploring strategies to sideline Chinese companies in rapidly growing developing economies as well. To achieve these aims, new instruments have been added and existing authorities expanded in novel ways. For example, in the past, the Commerce Department directed its power to ban exports with potential military uses only against goods directly related to weapons production. Those restrictions targeted specific buyers rather than whole countries.[ Under Biden](https://www.chinatalk.media/p/new-chip-export-controls-explained) this power was redeployed to cover entire categories (like [advanced semiconductors](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/magazine/semiconductor-chips-us-china.html)) whose main application is commercial rather than military, and to exclude China specifically—prohibiting every Chinese company from acquiring them, the machinery to make them, and American individuals’ expertise to develop the technology. **_Read More:_** [**_China Is Striking Back in the Tech War with the U.S._**](https://time.com/6295902/china-tech-war-u-s/) Biden not only built on Trump’s regulatory innovations, he also significantly sharpened their capacity to suppress Chinese development by rebuilding U.S. alliances with the other technologically advanced countries. As Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo [noted](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/28/us-needs-to-work-with-europe-to-slow-chinas-innovation-rate-raimondo-says.html): “If we really want to slow down China’s rate of innovation, we need to work with Europe.” Far from “competitive actions,” these measures are best understood as attempts to remove competition. The Biden Administration wants to limit the extent of its China exclusion to the most strategically important sectors and markets—what it calls “derisking” as opposed to “decoupling.” Yet the Chinese government has consistently branded such calming words as deceptive. The Biden administration is, after all, pursuing a course that directly challenges the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party. The Party claims a monopoly on power on the claim that it won China’s independence after a century of domination by the imperialist powers and it brought development to the nation and opportunity to the people. The same countries that once victimized China are now banding together in an attempt to stifle China’s economic growth and global status. That not only threatens the Party, it represents an explosive provocation to popular Chinese nationalism. Accepting permanent subordination would be an existential threat to China’s leaders. U.S. policy also poses, in[ Xi Jinping’s words](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/07/world/asia/china-us-xi-jinping.html), “challenges of unprecedented severity to the country’s development” as China attempts a high stakes transition away from property speculation as the engine of growth. Chinese leaders—like U.S. leaders thinking about problems in the U.S. economy—have concluded that the solution lies in high-tech sectors. Exclusionary U.S. policies thus threaten to cut off the Chinese economy’s escape route from the danger of financial collapse. But what if the ingenuity of Chinese business and state overcomes U.S. attempts at exclusion? In late August, three years after the U.S. attempted to destroy Huawei—one of China’s most successful multinational corporation and a focus of popular adulation in the country—the company released a new cell phone featuring Chinese-produced 7-nanometer chips from Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC). The capacity to produce such chips is precisely what U.S. restrictions were meant to[ forestall](https://www.ft.com/content/44f833a0-dc74-47be-833c-cb94a9d9e856). If the bet that China will accept exclusion is looking shaky, so too is the bet that exclusion is even achievable. U.S. leaders are responding to Chinese technological advances not with doubts about the strategy but with calls to push it ever further. Critics of Biden call his exclusion measures weak, [demanding](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-06/smic-appears-to-have-violated-sanctions-us-congressman-says) full embargoes on Huawei and SMIC. Others go even further. At a recent[ hearing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FUMOPjI5PM&t=3257s), several members of the China select committee denounced any trade at all with China for strengthening the power of the country. The alternative to today’s self-propelling spiral into conflict is not credulity toward Chinese leaders’ fine words about harmony and cooperation. Instead, it is precisely the [healthy competition](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/17/opinion/america-china-clean-energy.html) that the Biden administration says it wants. What has been missing from U.S. strategy, however, are steps to establish a sound framework for the relationship. Only when both sides can recognize a common good that exceeds their own narrow interests will it be possible to see competition as tolerable or even welcome rather than as an existential threat. The first step for both sides is to admit—contrary to the regular polemics each deploys accusing the other of undermining the international order—that the other is quite similar. Both countries are, in fact, [status quo powers with an interest in urgently needed reforms](https://quincyinst.org/report/common-good-diplomacy-a-framework-for-stable-u-s-china-relations/) to address serious problems in the global system. The project of forging a new international common good would focus on reforms to reduce the zero-sum pressures in the global system currently pushing the U.S. and China against each other. In the three key realms that need to be addressed—global authority and security, the global economy, and the climate crisis—China is sometimes exacerbating tensions. But it is also pursuing promising reforms, like its proposals for increasing the power of large developing countries in global governance and for supporting development in the Global South, that would expand the scope for positive-sum outcomes. Washington needs to reorient its approach to Beijing. Rather than seeking to exclude China in the name of “competition” and to discredit any initiatives that might increase China’s prestige, U.S. leaders should affirm and build on China’s constructive proposals. The path to healthy competition runs through a difficult but rewarding negotiation over how the international order can include everyone—for the benefit of us all. ## Transcript [00:19] President Biden [00:23] What's your message to China today about a year and a day ago. [00:28] We met in Bali on the sidelines of the G20 since then key members [00:35] of our teams are important discussions on issues matters [00:40] in both our Nations into the world. [00:42] But as always there is no substitute to face-to-face [00:46] discussion always found our discussion straightforward [00:50] and Frank and I've always appreciate it. [00:52] Mr. President. We known each other for a long time. [00:55] We haven't always agree which was not surprised anyone but our [01:01] meetings have always been candid straightforward [01:03] and useful. [01:05] I've never doubted what you've told me in terms of your candida [01:08] nature and when she speak I value our conversation because [01:12] I think it's Paramount that you and I understand each other [01:16] clearly leader-to-leader with no misconceptions or miscommunication. [01:22] We have to ensure their competition does not fear in the conflict [01:25] and we always have to manage it responsibly that competition. [01:30] That's what the United States want. [01:32] And what we intend to do. [01:34] We also I also believe it to world wines from both of us can [01:38] exchange. We all have a responsibility to our people and the [01:44] work the world to work together when we see it in their interest to [01:48] do so and a critical Global challenges. [01:51] We Face from climate change to counter-narcotics [01:54] to artificial intelligence demand our joint effort. [01:58] Last time. We met in Bali you said it was a year and a day [02:04] ago. [02:06] A lot has happened since then. [02:10] The world has emerged from the covid pandemic. [02:16] But it's still under its tremendous impact the global economy [02:21] is recovering but its momentum remains sluggish industrial [02:26] and Supply chains are still under the threat of interruption [02:29] and protectionism is rising all these are grave problems [02:33] the China us relationship, which is the most important [02:37] bilateral relationship in the world should be perceived [02:41] and envisioned in a broad context of the of the accelerating [02:46] Global Transformations and seen in a century. [02:49] It should develop a tattoo peoples and fulfills our responsibility [02:54] for human pelvis. [02:59] China us relationship has never been smooth sailing over the [03:02] past fifty years and more and it always faces problems of one [03:06] kind or another yet. [03:08] It is kept moving forward and twists and turns for two large [03:12] countries like China United States turning their back on each [03:15] other is not an option. [03:16] It is unrealistic for one side to remodel the other and countless [03:21] and confrontation has a evil consequences for both sides. [03:25] I'm still of the view that major country competition [03:29] is not the prevailing trend of current time and cannot solve [03:33] the problems faced in China and the United States or the World [03:36] At Large planet Earth is big enough for the two countries [03:40] to succeed at one country success is an opportunity for the other. [03:46] It is an objective fact that China and the United States a difference [03:49] in history culture social system and development path. [03:53] However, as long as they respect each other coexist in peace [03:57] and pursue winning cooperation, they will be fully capable [04:00] of rising above differences and find the right weight for the [04:04] two major countries to get along with each other. [04:07] He's in a promising future of the bilateral relationship [04:11] Mr. President You & I we are at the helm of China us relations. [04:18] We showed a heavy responsibility for the two peoples for the [04:22] world and for history. [04:24] I look forward to having. [04:29] In-depth exchange of views and reach new region you and the standings [04:34] with you on strategic an overarching issues critical to the direction [04:38] of Tanya's relations, and no major issues affecting world, [04:42] peace and development. [04:48] I wish to [04:55] Thank you for your thoughts were arrangements for our meeting [04:58] today and for our participation at the Apec meeting. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6334583/xi-jinping-joe-biden-new-relationship-essay/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6334583/xi-jinping-joe-biden-new-relationship-essay/"},"headline":"Xi and Biden Must Overcome the Hawks to Forge a New U.S.–China Relationship","datePublished":"2023-11-14T11:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-19T07:28:24.888Z","description":"The U.S. and China must work together in key global areas—or risk disaster.","url":"https://time.com/6334583/xi-jinping-joe-biden-new-relationship-essay/","keywords":["world affairs","freelance"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c116160d2422587/698a4249e6e84a72fe2b0b1a/GettyImages-1353606251.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jake Werner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jake-werner/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c116160d2422587/698a4249e6e84a72fe2b0b1a/GettyImages-1353606251.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President Biden And China's President Xi Meet In Virtual Summit \"n","caption":"U.S. President Biden And China's President Xi Meet In Virtual Summit \"n","creditText":"Kevin Frayer-Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/world-affairs/","name":"world affairs"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6334583/xi-jinping-joe-biden-new-relationship-essay/","name":"Xi and Biden Must Overcome the Hawks to Forge a New U.S.–China Relationship"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Joe Biden Meets with President Xi Jinping to Discuss U.S.-China Relations","description":"U.S. President Joe Biden says the aim of his meeting with China's President Xi Jinping is to \"better understand each other.\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/QQyJLUGm/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-11-15T21:56:29.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QQyJLUGm.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6334583/xi-jinping-joe-biden-new-relationship-essay/","duration":"PT5M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6334583/xi-jinping-joe-biden-new-relationship-essay/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```