SAN FRANCISCO -- After months of preparations and a carefully choreographed four-hour meeting on the outskirts of San Francisco on Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping sought to send a message of stability to the rest of the world.
Yet an off-the-cuff remark that Biden made at the end of the day risked throwing a wrench into the script, just hours after the leaders bid farewell. It reflected just how fragile the relationship is, regardless of the calm that aides wanted to project ahead of elections in Taiwan and then the U.S. next year.
