The High Stakes Around the Biden-Xi Meeting in California

President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping neared modest agreements on restoring military contacts and combating fentanyl trafficking during a summit aimed at steadying relations between the world’s two leading powers.

After the two leaders sat down for little more than two hours at a wooded Northern California estate on Wednesday, Biden said in a tweet that the two leaders had “made real progress.”

While the summit helped moderate the often bitter tone in U.S.-China relations, it did little to resolve the deep frictions tearing at the countries.