Biden and Xi Jinping meet to reduce disputes

After two telephone meetings, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping will have a bilateral meeting, albeit by teleconference, which will represent the most important diplomatic meeting of the year between the two major international powers. The growing tension between the two states will probably condition this summit, however the need to arrive at a satisfactory, albeit provisional, coexistence for both parties should constitute the way to be able to reach those minimum shared solutions capable of averting potential crises. . For the president of the United States it will be the first time he will meet his Chinese counterpart since he was elected, despite the two leaders having known each other for previous meetings, when Biden held the position of American vice president. The issues on the table always remain the same: reciprocal commercial and economic relations, Chinese military growth and Beijing’s geopolitical ambitions, which prevent the necessary collaboration between the two most important countries on the planet. The American foreign policy towards China, conducted by the previous White House administration, operated a mixture of aggression and openness, which signaled the evident amateurism of Trump, committed, for the most part, to resolving the trade imbalance favorable to the Chinese country. . With the Biden presidency, it was hoped for a different approach, capable of smoothing out the differences through careful diplomatic action: but this was not the case; the new tenant of the White House, not only has maintained the positions of his predecessor, but has further tightened the tone and put the Chinese question at the center of his foreign policy. China’s reaction, it could not have been otherwise, was to place itself on the same level as American action and this resulted in a succession of duties, sanctions and considerable dialectical aggression, which resulted in a situation of constant tension, certainly not conducive to a necessary relaxation, especially in this historical moment. It must be recognized that the US reasons are, however, objective: the repeated violations of human rights in Tibet and against Chinese Muslims, the repression of Hong Kong, the expansionist will and cyber attacks against the US and other Western countries, constitute valid reasons to justify American resentment; however, both countries need each other: the US is the main market for China and to achieve appreciable results for the climate, the active participation of Beijing is required. Between the two superpowers, the question of Taiwan is the most urgent: an invasion by China, which considers the island to be under its sovereignty, would jeopardize world peace and with it the profits deriving from commercial traffic: this reason it is, for the moment, the best peace assurance in favor of the whole world, but an always possible accident, deriving from the continuous military exercises or from the presence of the warships in the Strait of Formosa, can cause potentially irreparable situations; above all because connected with this question is the Chinese nuclear development, which constitutes the greatest military emergency for the USA. The Indo-Pacific region risks becoming the scene of a world rearmament capable of changing the current equilibrium, bringing or, rather, bringing the planet back to a state of fact, where the strategy of nuclear tension and equilibrium threatens to be the determining factor of international relations. The risk is concrete, but the repetition of the balance of terror would no longer have the connotation of a relationship with an exclusive double conflict, but could provoke a multilateral confrontation, given the availability of the atomic weapon to more than just two international subjects. Triggering a widespread atomic rearmament race would mean putting world peace in constant apprehension and, consequently, trade and commerce. On this basis, convenient for the two superpowers and beyond, Washington and Beijing could find interesting points of understanding to develop a relationship, if not one of friendship, at least one of mutual coexistence, such as to guarantee adequate security for diplomatic relations, a necessary basis for common peaceful coexistence. To achieve this objective, pragmatic and practical attitudes and an elasticity will be required, which only a great expertise in diplomatic affairs can guarantee.