Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.
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In words that shouldn't have to be said but were important to express, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Joe Biden on Wednesday that "Planet Earth is big enough" for the two superpowers.
That's a low bar. But it's reflective of the depths of the U.S.-China relationship, which is the most strained in decades over fundamental and growing differences concerning philosophy, geopolitics, trade and other matters, making an already fragile dynamic even more fraught. Xi seemed to acknowledge this when he told his American counterpart that it was "unrealistic" to "remodel the other."
Remodel, no. Reconnect, yes — which even Xi said was imperative. "For two large countries like China and the United States, turning their back on each other is not an option," the Chinese leader said, even though that's in effect what happened when China cut off military-to-military communication. Fortunately, for each country and the world, that will soon be restored in order to not allow an accident to spiral into a calamity.
In another important — albeit incremental — move, China agreed to help end the shipment of components integral to the production of fentanyl. "It's going to save lives, and I appreciated President Xi's commitment on this issue," Biden said, without hyperbole, since fentanyl is part of a drug scourge killing scores of thousands of Americans yearly. Progress was also made on establishing working groups on artificial-intelligence challenges and advancing climate-change cooperation.
Emphasis was put on issues that didn't have as clear-cut outcomes but are equally important, including Biden highlighting China's ability, and responsibility, to persuade Iran to not fan the fires of the war between Israel and Hamas into a regional conflagration. Taiwan was certainly addressed, too, especially in advance of the island's upcoming election. But the two sides are far apart on that and other issues related to Biden's rightful prioritization of defending democracies amid a global rise in authoritarianism. China, for instance, is complicit in Russia's illegal, immoral invasion of Ukraine, and its unwillingness to curb North Korea further destabilizes the world — particularly the Pacific region.
The Pacific and Asian nations were the backdrop of the summit, with Xi and Biden meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation confab being held in San Francisco. The meeting comes at a time when China could use a boost of economic cooperation, with its vaunted growth in a significant stall.