Biden and Xi Meet on Sidelines of APEC Summit in California

U.S. President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping plunged into their first face-to-face meeting in a year Wednesday, intent on working to stabilize fraught relations and showing the world that while they are global economic competitors they’re not locked in a winner-take-all faceoff.

Earlier in the day, the two warmly shook hands as they made a red carpet entrance to a bucolic Northern California estate for hours of work on detangling a multitude of tensions.

After lunch, Biden after took a short walk on the property with Xi, winding along a brick path where the two leaders were able to get a good look at the hillside and property’s impressive topiary.

Asked by reporters how the meeting was going, the president responded with a thumbs up an said the talks were going “well.”

The outcome of Wednesday’s talks could have far-reaching implications for an anxious world that is grappling with global economic cross-currents from the pandemic, wars in the Middle East and Europe, upcoming elections in Taiwan and more.

Both leaders acknowledged the importance of their relationship and the need for better coordination. But their differences shone through: Xi indicated he wants better cooperation — but on China's terms. And he sought to project strength to his domestic audience in the face of U.S. policies restricting imports from China and limiting technology transfers to Beijing.

Biden, meanwhile, will also spend time this week in California working to highlight new alliances in the Indo Pacific and efforts to boost trade with other regional leaders.

Xi, speaking through an interpreter, declared it “an objective fact that China and the United States are different in history, culture, social system and development.”

The presidents and their respective aides on trade, the economy, national security and regional diplomacy gathered across from one another at a single long table, the culmination of negotiations between the two leaders' top aides over the past several months.

It was Biden and Xi's first conversation of any kind since they met last November in Bali.

They're seeking to build back to a stable baseline after already tense relations took a nosedive following the U.S. downing of a Chinese spy balloon that had traversed the continental U.S., and amid differences over the self-ruled island of Taiwan, China’s hacking of a Biden official’s emails and other matters.

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