Yesterday, President Biden met with President Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, in San Francisco.  I would like to share with you Robert Hubbell’s take on the meeting and what it says about the ability of our president to be exactly what he needs to be in order to help make the world a safer place for us all …

Biden In Command

16 November 2023

Robert B. Hubbell

After meeting with President Xi of China at the APEC conference in San Francisco, President Biden announced several new initiatives to improve the relations between the US and China, including,

• Restoration of military-to-military communications.
• Strengthening counternarcotics operations in China to reduce the fentanyl crisis in the US.
• Restarting efforts between the two countries to fight the climate crisis.
• Affirming the need to address the risks of advanced AI systems.

For a full summary of the meeting, see The White House, Readout of President Joe Biden’s Meeting with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China.

Although the “agreements” were small and incremental (as opposed to ground-breaking), they relate to top-line, long-term issues that affect not only the US and China but the entire world. Biden was able to make substantial progress in “re-normalizing” relations between the US and China. That is no mean feat.

After his meeting with President Xi, Biden held a press conference on a range of issues that lasted more than twenty minutes. During his remarks, Biden was clear, careful, and precise in dealing with difficult and delicate topics.

After Biden finished his remarks and formal answers to questions from reporters, he stopped on his exit from the briefing room to answer questions shouted by reporters. He gave direct, strong answers to “gotcha” questions—responses that clearly disappointed the reporters.

For example, Biden did not evade or deny his prior statement that President Xi is “a dictator,” noting that Xi rules in “a Communist country that has a form of government totally different from ours.”

The entire press conference is available on YouTube, Biden holds news conference after meeting with China’s Xi Jinping.

Anyone watching the video with an open mind will see a president fully capable (and in command) of dealing with the US’s main competitor in trade, technology, and global security. On several occasions, Biden interrupted his remarks mid-sentence and noted that “I should stop here”—indicating that Biden has a keen sense of what information can be shared and what must remain confidential. Compare Biden’s sober discretion and self-control to Trump’s repeated blabbing of national defense secrets to foes, friends, and complete strangers.

At the 11’55” mark, a reporter asks a (nearly inaudible) question about the Israeli military operation in the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza. Biden’s careful answer over the next two minutes demonstrates a command of the facts and sensitivity to the difficult balance between the US’s support for Israel and its desire for Israel to reduce civilian casualties. During that two-minute answer, Biden says that the US “told Israel”—and then Biden stops and says, “Let me be precise here: We discussed the need [for Israel] to be incredibly careful . . . .”

[I will let you read between the lines, but a reasonable inference is that the US did more than “discuss the need” for Israel to avoid civilian casualties.]

People can disagree with the substance of Biden’s answer about Israel’s military operations in the hospital, but Biden’s answer reveals detailed knowledge of the military operation and his requests to presidential staffers for more information. Even then, Biden was careful to limit his factual statements by with the preface, “I was told XYZ.”

Anyone who is concerned that Biden is “too old” to handle the job of president isn’t paying attention. And there is simply no comparison between Biden’s carefully nuanced performance today and Trump’s meandering, word-salad impersonations of James Joyce’s Ulysses minus the minimalist plot of the novel. (No offense intended toward James Joyce, Ulysses, or salads.)