Trump looms over Biden’s final meeting with Xi in Peru

When President Joe Biden meets for the final time Saturday with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, his aides say the moment will be ripe for reflection on a relationship that began more than a decade ago, over a long meal in Chengdu.

When President Joe Biden meets for the final time Saturday with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, his aides say the moment will be ripe for reflection on a relationship that began more than a decade ago, over a long meal in Chengdu. It was an episode that left deep impressions on the president, at least judging by how often he recounts it. A search of Biden’s speeches over the past four years finds 61 instances of him describing a moment at the end of the evening when, asked by Xi to define America, he came up with a single word: Possibilities. In the end, looking backward may be more productive for Biden and Xi than trying to predict what’s next for their two nations. Donald Trump’s return to the White House has been the overwhelming backdrop to the summit of Pacific leaders that’s been unfolding in Lima this week, as delegates discuss and strategize for an uncertain future. Trump’s embrace of tariffs, autocrats and isolationist viewpoints runs mostly counter to the foreign policy principles Biden spent the past four years espousing on the world stage. Yet perhaps most disconcerting for leaders gathered in Lima may be Trump’s unpredictability. That includes Xi, who regularly encourages stability above all else in his public pronouncements.