Day after meeting Xi, Biden says US has ‘real differences’ with China newsbhunt

President Biden said Thursday that the US has “real differences with Beijing,” one day after he held an hourslong meeting with President XiJinping of China at a moment of deep tension between the two countries. Speaking to executives at the APEC summit in San Francisco, Biden noted that he and Xi had agreed to resume military-to-military communication to “reduce the risk of miscalculation” – a line that got a round of applause from the room.”We have real differences with Beijing,” Biden said. “We are going to continue to address them with smart policies and strong diplomacy.”
Biden also stressed that a strong US economy was helping the Indo-Pacific region. The president has been frustrated that positive news about the US economy has not seemed to resonate with the public, so on Thursday he took the opportunity to tick through the numbers. The American economy grew by 4.9% last quarter. Unemployment has been under 4% for the past 21 months. Inflation has come down by 65% – with “more to do” to lower it, he said. “I acknowledge there’s a disconnect between the numbers and how people feel about their place in the world right now,” he said. “We can deal with the second part as well.” Biden joined the summit, a group of 21 economies that surround the Pacific Ocean, one day after a meeting with Xi. Besides the military agreement, the two agreed to work to regulate the production of compounds used to make fentanyl, a driver of the US opioid epidemic.