Xi-Biden meeting significant, say observers
The meeting of the two leaders has been noticed by people in Indonesia and around the world, and may have been a surprise to many, said Usman Kansong, director-general of information and public communication at the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Informatics.
Their bilateral meeting was “a symbol of how to solve our problems in the world together”, he said.
Michael Vatikiotis, a summit attendee and a senior advisor at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a private foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland, said: “The main achievement is they agreed to engage on different issues at the senior official level.”
“It was an extremely important meeting, and probably the main outcome of the summit, in a sense that everyone is hoping for them to meet and address issues of concern,” said Vatikiotis.
Jameel Al Theyabi, editor of Saudi Gazette, said the Xi-Biden meeting is important and possibly everyone in the world is looking for a result. “It is very good for world peace,” he said.
Hong Kong legislator Edward Leung Hei said that the meeting will allow Biden to gain a better understanding of China, and the Chinese path to modernization and peaceful development.
As history shows, Western countries realized modernization by the path of war, colonization and plunder, thus the Western world often views the rise of China based on a zero-sum mentality, Leung said. “It’s of utmost importance for the world” to learn that Chinese modernization is one of peaceful development.
China and the US should lead the world in these initiatives and the US should rethink and withdraw its financial, trade and technology wars it started against China, said Hong Kong legislator Kennedy Wong Yingho in Bali.
Moreover, the US should “stop stirring up cross-Straits tension as it would be a futile effort to derail China’s peaceful development”.
Arsjad Rasjid, the host of B20 Indonesia
and chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Indonesia is proud to welcome Xi to Bali for the G20 Summit.
“As we approach the Asian century, I believe that Indonesia, China and everyone around us will begin to see the world from a new perspective,” Rasjid said on Nov 13. “We will shift from a world driven by profit to a world driven by the need to create common prosperity.”