A different mood as Xi breaks the ice with Biden in San Francisco, six years after Mar-a-Lago and Trump

But the mood was more businesslike and intense, as Xi and Biden covered a wide range of difficult issues – from the nature of the bilateral relationship to Taiwan and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

This was not a private residence of the US president, there were few personal anecdotes and no first ladies accompanying the leaders.

There was a working lunch, however, and a stroll in the estate grounds.

Chinese state media framed the summit as a rapport-building exercise, focusing on how Xi and Biden discussed “strategic, overarching, and directional issues concerning China-US relations”.

‘China will eventually, inevitably be reunified’ with Taiwan, Xi tells Biden

It also highlighted more personal interaction between the two leaders, such as Biden showing Xi a decades-old photo of him taken in San Francisco, and seeing off the Chinese leader after their four-hour meeting.

Hua Chunying, China’s assistant foreign minister and ministry spokeswoman, posted a photo of Xi being presented with a National Basketball Association jersey by California governor Gavin Newsom.

“Governor @GavinNewsom promised to get President Xi a #GoldenStateWarriors jersey when they met in Beijing last month – and here it is,” Hua said on X, formerly Twitter.

Xi’s interactions with Biden date back to when he travelled to China as the US vice-president in 2011. Xi was also vice-president at the time but was widely expected to take over from Hu Jintao as China’s top leader the following year.

Biden has spoken at length about their personal relationship, forged during long hours of in-person interactions and reciprocal visits.

“I’ve spent more time with President Xi than any world leader has, just because we were vice presidents,” Biden told reporters following Wednesday’s meeting, their first in-person talks in a year.

According to Biden, he and Xi had spent 67 hours together when he was vice-president in the Obama administration.

“[Then] president [Barack] Obama knew he couldn’t spend time with the vice-president of another country, so I travelled 17,000 miles (about 27,360km) with them in China and around – and the United States. I’ve met with him many times,” Biden said last November ahead of a meeting with Xi in Bali, the last time they met face to face.

In 2012, before taking over from Hu, Xi visited the US and met Biden again at the White House and in Los Angeles.

Biden returned to China a year later, holding talks with then President Xi for more than five hours. The two men met again during Xi’s 2015 state visit.

The first time they met as presidents of their respective countries was via video link in November 2021.

Xi greeted Biden as an “old friend” at the start of the meeting, although Biden had earlier rejected this description, saying the relationship was purely business.

“Let’s get something straight. We know each other well; we’re not old friends. It’s just pure business,” Biden said in June that year.

At a press conference after his talks with Xi on Wednesday, Biden began by describing their interaction as “candid and straightforward” and said they had made progress.

03:12

Xi Jinping, Joe Biden hold talks on sidelines of Apec summit to ease strained US-China ties

Xi Jinping, Joe Biden hold talks on sidelines of Apec summit to ease strained US-China ties

However, he ended it by once again calling Xi a “dictator” in response to a reporter’s question, saying the Chinese form of government was “totally different than ours”.

China’s foreign ministry called the comment “irresponsible”.

“This statement is extremely wrong and is irresponsible political manipulation,” ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in Beijing on Thursday. “This is an attempt by some people to sabotage and sow discord between China and the US, and it will not succeed.”

During a campaign stop in California in June, Biden – who is seeking re-election next year – called Xi a “dictator” and China a country with “real economic difficulties”.