When Biden meets Xi, there’s one obstacle he can’t overcome

When President Joe Biden meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping in California on Wednesday, it will mark the first time in exactly one year and one day since the heads of the two nuclear-armed rivals have seen each other in person.

Much has happened since that day in Bali, Indonesia, last year. The two have a long and urgent list of issues to discuss – including two raging wars, a heating planet and a host of other highly flammable issues.

The notion – Biden’s hope – behind the summit is that the two leaders will find a way to manage the competition between their countries in a responsible manner: great powers, coming together as stewards of a dangerous world, working jointly to keep it from spinning out of control.

That’s the idea, anyway.

In practice, the goal faces an almost insurmountable obstacle, even if more modest ones are worth pursuing and achievable.