Biden and Xi Meet Again

Biden and Xi shake hands in highly choreographed meeting

Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden finally met again in San Francisco following over a year of tense relations between the two countries.

They had talks that lasted four hours, which is considered really productive, going over a wide range of topics from restarting military-to military direct contact, curbing fentanyl production, Taiwan, the Israel-Hamas war, and artificial intelligence.

The two leaders held talks for four hours

Xi offered a diplomatic comment: "Planet Earth is big enough" for both superpowers, and that while their countries were different, they should be "fully capable of rising above differences."

The Chinese leader also hinted the panda diplomacy program might start up again after the US sent back three pandas over a week ago.

At a press conference after Xi had left, a reporter asked Biden if he still regarded Xi a dictator, a word he had used earlier in the year.

"Well, look, he is," Biden said. "I mean, he's a dictator in the sense that he's a guy who runs a country that is a Communist country."

Reporters freaked out that Biden had said the D-word, but he was just calling a spade a spade.

Will it undo the four hours of talks? No.

Perhaps panda diplomacy will restart again?

China needs the US desperately to woo back American companies to do more business in the Middle Kingdom, but the political risks are too high these days. 

Company executives and journalists being disappeared and detained, or have exit bans placed on them are not conducive to a good business environment...