Photo/Illutration U.S. President Joe Biden, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands before a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit on Nov. 14, 2022, in Bali, Indonesia. (AP file photo)

Xi Jinping was vice president of China when he visited the United States in 2012 and was given an extraordinarily warm welcome by the administration of President Barack Obama.

I presume that Obama wanted to personally ascertain the world view of China’s next leader.

It now feels like something that occurred in another lifetime. Back then, both Beijing and Washington had dreams about their harmonious future.

But there already were signs of the not-so-cordial times ahead.

Reacting to the West’s condemnation of China’s human rights violations, Xi was quoted as saying, “Some foreigners with full bellies and nothing better to do engage in finger-pointing at us.”

Perhaps that foreshadowed Xi’s current hard-line foreign policy.

After that first meeting, Obama’s face clearly showed how his disappointment with Xi grew with each summit. I even heard that Obama once interrupted Xi in mid-sentence, excusing himself to go to the bathroom.

After years of twists and turns and amid their deepening rift, the leaders of the United States and China will be meeting in suburban San Francisco tomorrow, Japan time.

Reportedly, the topics of the summit include the Taiwan issue and the resumption of dialogue between U.S. and Chinese armed forces.

But is that all? The international order, which has always supported the prosperity of these two nations, is now teetering dangerously.

There is the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the horrors in Gaza. Acts of violence are being committed all too casually in contravention of international laws, with innocent civilians being brutally slain. It is as if the moral code humanity has established has been broken.

This war-torn world must be changed. I beg of Xi and U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss, with all sincerity, how they could use their respective nations’ influences to change this world.

I know there is next to no hope of my plea being answered. Still, I cannot stop begging.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 15

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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