Will the Biden-Xi meeting change anything?

https://rt.com/news/-china-xi-apec-summit

The US presidential election is now only a year away, and that’s why Biden didn’t lavish concessions on Xi during this meeting. He agreed to be more constructive, but also framed it in a way that he was getting concessions from China, such as over fentanyl. Beijing has become a scapegoat for America’s addiction problem and the two leaders apparently agreed on working to curb the production of the drug, whose precursors, Washington claims, come from China.

The US continues to have its sights on China as its largest competitor and seeks to affirmably reshape the international order to secure its permanent dominance. That includes military capabilities, alliances, technology and of course economics and trade. The US may be less hostile to China, but it very much seeks to suppress its rise wherever possible. Therefore, as the joint statement showed, this was about “managing competition” between the two, all the while Biden continues to posture about how he’s being tough on Beijing and defending American interests.

Under no circumstances would Biden allow this meeting to be seen as a “capitulation” to Beijing and because of that, US strategic objectives, be it through domestic pressures or international ones, are not liable to change significantly. While Washington has become more amicable towards Beijing in recent months, toning down hostile rhetoric over issues such as Taiwan, little else has changed. The US continues to blacklist and embargo Chinese technology companies in the semiconductor industry and still pursues its campaign of military encirclement around Beijing by arming Taiwan and egging the Philippines on to escalate tensions in the South China Sea.