Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives at San Francisco International Airport for a summit with US President Joe Biden, and to attend the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, in San Francisco, the US, on November 14, 2023. Xi was received by California Governor Gavin Newsom, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other US representatives at the airport. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday local time to participate in a much-anticipated China-US summit meeting and the 30th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, an occasion that signifies the gathering momentum of stabilization  of China-US relations which will inject positive energy and stability into the world amid a complex geopolitical landscape and challenges of post-pandemic economic recovery.

Xi was received by California Governor Gavin Newsom, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other US representatives at San Francisco International Airport. 

The streets in San Francisco were filled with a multitude of local residents and overseas Chinese including students waving the national flags of both China and the US, expressing the warmest welcome for President Xi's arrival.

San Francisco was the first stop of Xi's maiden trip to the US decades ago. In the spring of 1985, Xi, at that time a county leader of Zhengding in North China's Hebei Province, took his first steps onto US soil, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

A man surnamed Zhang in his 40s, who has lived in the US for 11 years, told the Global Times outside Moscone Center, the main venue for the APEC events, that he hopes for a positive outcome for the China-US leaders' summit. "When bilateral relations were sour, there were fewer flights [between the two countries] and the tickets were expensive."

If China-US relations improve, not only will that benefit the Chinese community in the US, but also bring about stability and development of the world, Zhang said. 

Chinese business representatives in the US have also gathered in San Francisco from across the US to witness the summit, hoping that this meeting can help dispel misunderstandings and facilitate trade between the two countries. "Businesses from China and the US now need more trust and face-to-face communication, and President Xi's trip to the US comes just in time," a New York-based Chinese company representative told the Global Times on Monday. 

Managing differences  

US President Joe Biden, before leaving Washington for San Francisco on Tuesday, said his broad goal was to get Washington and Beijing "on a normal course corresponding" once again, including communication between the two militaries, even as the two countries have sharp differences on many issues, the Associated Press reported.

"We're not trying to decouple from China, but what we're trying to do is change the relationship for the better," Biden told reporters. 

But Biden also warned that the US was wary of investing in China due to Beijing's "business practices". The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) of the US Congress emphasized technology, trade and the Taiwan question to argue about China's "aggressiveness" in a report released Tuesday. 

Biden's remarks again demonstrate that the US, despite urgently needing to stabilize relations with China, still places strategic rivalry at the center, Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times that China-US relations have entered a phase of "competition but not breakdown." 

Frictions and conflicts will continue to emerge, as the US will not stop its crackdown on China's development, but hopefully through the summit, the two major powers can compete in a better way - restrain areas and intensity of conflicts while trying their best to expand possible cooperation, Wu said.  

China and the US issued a joint statement on Wednesday reaffirming their commitment to work together with other countries to address the climate crisis, with a working group to be activated to focus on areas including energy transition, methane, the circular economy and resource efficiency, low-carbon and deforestation, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

The two countries are also expected to make progress on cooperation in cracking down on the fentanyl trade, which is also expected to be on the agenda of the leaders' meeting, per US media reports. The US is ready to remove China's Institute of Forensic Science under the Ministry of Public Security from a sanctions list to facilitate bilateral cooperation on fentanyl control, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing anonymous source familiar with the matter. 

However, any cooperation in specific areas would be impossible without a stable and healthy China-US relationship, Chinese experts said, and the current momentum of stabilization should be cherished as it has been hard-won through efforts and engagement at multiple levels and in various areas. They also underlined China's red lines must not be provoked or tested.  

People walk under signs for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings ahead of the summit at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California, on November 9, 2023. Photo: VCG

Injecting certainty 

It is widely agreed that the stability of China-US relations not only concerns the two countries and their peoples, it is also of great significance to the Asia-Pacific and the entire world. 

Amid a sluggish global economy, China attaches great importance to the China-US summit and the APEC Leaders' Meeting as an occasion to cool down the tension in China-US relations, so as to inject certainty into a turbulent world and ensure that the Asia-Pacific will continue to be the engine of growth, Huo Jianguo, a vice chairman of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

"It is also very important for China to use the APEC week to engage in dialogue and communication with some of the major developing economies in the ASEAN and Latin American regions," said Liu Chenyang, director of the APEC Study Center of Nankai University in Tianjin.

Liu told the Global Times that APEC is one of the most important multilateral cooperation mechanisms in the world today. The Leaders' Meeting provides them with a crucial platform to discuss international hotspot issues, including those in the Asia-Pacific region, coordinate policies and exchange views. 

"The more complex the international situation is, the more prominent the role of the APEC platform becomes," Liu said. 

"It is worth paying attention to discussions among APEC economies on issues such as how to mitigate the influence of geopolitical factors, build consensus and jointly maintain regional peace and stability," Liu said, as most APEC economies are more eager to find effective ways to promote the implementation of the "APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040."

Commenting on the overlapping of APEC and a ministerial meeting of the US-proposed Indo Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), Chinese analysts believe that if the US wants to forcefully push an agenda at the IPEF which targets China and disturbs the shared goal of growth, it would be contrary to what the world needs and would make the US itself unpopular. 

Journalists work at the international media center of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in San Francisco on November 12, 2023. Photo: VCG