Biden-Xi meeting; Surging cases test of optimized Covid measures; Real estate rescue
Summary of today’s top items:
Biden-Xi meeting - Biden and Xi met for over three hours in Bali. From the readouts and the press conference it sounds like the meeting was constructive and there will be a resumption of some dialogues. The US readout said that Xi and Biden reiterated “that a nuclear war should never be fought and can never be won and underscored their opposition to the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine”, but there was no mention of that in the PRC readout. Taiwan featured prominently, with Xi telling Biden that “Taiwan question is at the very core of China's core interests, the bedrock of the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and the first red line that must not be crossed in China-U.S. relations”. Biden reiterated the US formula on Taiwan and in a press conference Biden said he does not believe “there’s any imminent attempt on the part of China to invade Taiwan.” So the right words on Taiwan to the PRC, but I doubt they will be satisfied.