President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden have concluded their hours-long meeting, touching upon topics such as artificial intelligence, military communication, and control of the flow of fentanyl, springing hope that Sino-US ties can return to the right track.
But we should also wake up to the complexity of bilateral relations. That the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission's 2023 report, released just a day before the meeting, mentioned that "the result of high-level meetings between the United States and China has been merely the promise of further meetings", not to forget some US media's biased reports on China, show that a lot needs to be done to improve bilateral ties.
It is imperative for the two countries to return to the track of managed competition, which is conducive for China, as well as the US. Cooperation on trade will also boost employment and development in the US while China, too, needs a stable external environment as much as ever to stabilize its economy.
That the two largest economies have arrived at a consensus on AI and climate change, a new ballast stone apart from trade, is encouraging. In the lasting path to restoring and stabilizing ties, China and the US need to look for more starting points to meet each other halfway.