Has 2023 been a critical year for China-US relations?

The November summit between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in California was historic. It was the first time in six years that the Chinese leader visited the US, but it happened at a tough time.

Biden's officials have been clear about wanting to keep communication channels with the Asian country open. The November meeting discussed issues ranging from climate change to trade.

But most importantly, The New York Times reported the leaders agreed to restart military communications, suspended in 2022 after Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the House, visited Taiwan.

The agreement came at a critical moment for international politics, with the wars in Ukraine and Gaza raising tensions worldwide.

Right after the visit, during a press briefing, a journalist asked Biden if he still qualified Xi as a dictator. The President's solid "yes" answer made his Secretary of State frown.

Anthony Blinken had an excellent reason for his reaction: he had been working hard to fix the relationship between the two leaders for months.

In June, Blinken visited China and was received by Xi. It was a vital meeting that ended with a commitment to fixing the relations, an immense leap after months of tension.

The meeting was preceded by one of those crises: the Wall Street Journal revealed that China had paid the Cuban government millions for a spy base aimed at the US.

During a press briefing, White House spokesperson John Kirby said the information was inaccurate, and the US was aware for many months of China's efforts in Cuba.

Blinken postponed the initial visit scheduled for February due to the Chinese spy balloon incident, another chip in the cristal-fragile relationship between the two countries.

Still, the February incident only added more pressure to the tension building between the two countries for years. It rose remarkably quickly in the five prior years.

Trump's trade war with China, when he banned companies in the US from doing business with Chinese giants like Huawei, complicated the US' standing in the Asian country.

However, two big blows during the Biden administration pushed things further, aside from Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in 2022 or the removal of pandas from American zoos.

In 2021, Chinese ownership of American farmlands sent off the alarms in Congress as the Biden Administration was working to depend less on the country for strategic industries.

Image: Dan Meyers / Unsplash

The Congress was concerned about the location of Chinese-owned land in the US. That year, a Chinese company bought land near an Air Force base in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Biden and Xi's meeting shows a willingness from both leaders. China is in a vulnerable position, with its economy falling. Still, the tension between the two international powers is far from over.