U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on Wednesday to open a presidential hotline, resume military-to-military communications and work to curb fentanyl production, showing tangible progress in their first face-to-face talks in a year. "This summit is very significant. The leaders of the world's two most major powers must have direct communication and compare notes on global events and challenges," according to Susan Thornton, former top U.S. envoy for East Asia.

Biden knew his meeting with Xi would unleash a political firestorm. Just talking to China was enough to trigger claims that the president was appeasing an enemy. "Domestic politics have an outsized effect on US-China relations, but we should learn to handle them better and not let extreme voices overwhelm the right policy approaches," Thornton said in an interview with DeepChina.

"Beijing and Washington have two different visions for what a 'stabilized' relationship would look like, and they will be difficult to reconcile," Thornton wrote in an article for The Diplomat a few days ago. However, she said that both sides, including the U.S., wanted to ensure a modicum of stability for US-China ties going forward. Both China and the U.S. did not want to see a world of disorder.

China was willing to be "a partner and a friend" of the United States, Xi told American business leaders in San Francisco hours after he held extensive talks with Biden. "Some may say that China's rise in military and especially economic power has made others insecure. China will need to find ways to reassure others about its practices and intentions," said Thornton.

It's believed that expectations were low heading into the summit, and they were met. At a press conference following his meeting with Xi, Biden said the countries had reached a series of agreements, including a commitment from China to reopen military communication channels, whichwere shut down in August 2022. U.S. and China pledged co-operation to control drug trafficking and add commercial flights. "I hope that economic, law enforcement, climate, health and education cooperation will be more fruitful," Thornton said.

Susan A. Thornton, a former senior U.S. diplomat. She is currently a senior fellow at the Yale Law School Paul Tsai China Center and the director of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Security at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy.