Xi-Biden meeting: Setting a stable foundation for de-conflicting global issues

Editor's note: Following the much-awaited meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden, the focus shifts to the profound implications of China-U.S. relations on global stability and cooperation. To find out why an improved China-U.S. relationship is in the best interest of the global community, CGTN's Senior International Editor Abhishek G. Bhaya spoke with Rorry Daniels, Managing Director of Asia Society Policy Institute and Senior Fellow at the Center for China Analysis for this episode of First Voice.

CGTN: There is a prevailing view among analysts that an improved China-U.S. relationship is in the best interest of the global community. Do you share this perspective?

Rorry Daniels: It's critically important for the world for the U.S. and China to manage their relationship responsibly. We're facing actual global existential crises right now, including a climate crisis, but also, I think, crises that emanate from food insecurity, from energy insecurity.

So there's a ton of problems on the global agenda that we need to solve in the 21st century or at least we need to manage better and having the U.S. and China set a stable floor under the relationship not only gives us a better chance to cooperate, coordinate and de-conflict our respective bilateral approaches to those issues, but also sends a signal to the rest of the world that cooperating with the United States on one side or with China on the other is not going to impede their relationship with the other side.

The countries of the world don't want to have to choose between the U.S. and China. It's not, useful for them to feel as though this is a divided world where the U.S. leads one side and China leads another. It's not useful for the countries of the world and it's not useful for solving our problems. And I think that's why President Biden and President Xi came to the summit with a clear message that they want to manage this relationship responsibly, that they see dialogue and diplomacy as the pathway forward to doing that, and that it will benefit both peoples in those countries but (also) around the world.

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