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Top leaders from China and the US held a virtual face-to-face summit on Tuesday morning Beijing time, as President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden exchanged warm regards for each other, while pledging a concerted effort to tackle global challenges like climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic. 

"The 'global village' of humanity faces multiple challenges. As the world's two largest economies and permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and the US need to increase communication and cooperation," President Xi said. Biden noted that the two countries have a responsibility to engage with each other, better manage competition and avoid veering into "open conflict."

Last week, the two powers surprised the international community by issuing a joint declaration to address climate change at global climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland. The agreement between Beijing and Washington to work together in this decade to address carbon emission reductions and protect Earth is commendable, and, it also shows the two countries can achieve win-win results if they earnestly cooperate. 

The summit meeting is the most substantial round of talks both leaders have held since Biden took office in January. The meeting is expected to give the world's two major powers a chance to repair fraught relations, and to get to know each other better, averting misunderstandings or miscalculation. 

It is very important for the world's two largest economies to maintain dialogue, exchange opinions on bilateral relations, and engage on global affairs and governance. This can be done through understanding each other's core interests and avoid overstepping the "red lines" of each respective country, or deliberately provoking an ugly tussle over these core issues.

It is also useful for the two countries' senior officials to treat each other as equals and with respect. As China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi stated earlier this year in Alaska, the US should not talk to China or any other country in a "condescending" manner.

Facing 31-year high inflation at home, US President Biden needs help from China. Biden knows perfectly well that without a strong American economy, American voters will desert his fellow Democrats in the midterm elections in 2022, and will also likely lead to him losing his bid for reelection in 2024. 

China and the US could cooperate to help resolve the global disruption of industrial supply chains, and severe shipping snarls across the seas and at the ports, which is causing skyrocketing price hikes of commodities in the US and other economies - a grave headache for Biden. 

Also, the two countries could start negotiations on scrapping Trump's punitive tariffs, and Washington could allow tariffs-free, inexpensive Chinese goods to flow into markets and effectively address America's inflation crisis. A majority of American manufacturers have been demanding the White House scrap Trump's high tariffs on Chinese products. Citing a serious semiconductor shortage, General Motors said earlier its auto sales in the US fell a staggering 34 percent in the third quarter this year. Industrial production has slowed in the US, with its July-September GDP growth dropping to 2 percent. 

The events of the last year have shown how indispensable China is to the global manufacturing chain. Despite Trump's high tariffs, the coronavirus and other disruptions, few American companies are re-shoring operations, with most discovering the simple fact that abandoning huge and still-growing Chinese market is unrealistic and unthinkable.

The summit could be taken as a sign that the two economic and political heavyweights could at least avoid a further deterioration in their ties after four years of damage caused by the reckless Trump administration.

It was the previous Trump administration which tried to push the bilateral relationship to the precipice. From launching a tariff war and a technology decoupling, to skirting on abandoning the one-China principle and inciting secessionists on the Taiwan island, the Trump administration went too far by shaking the fundamentals of the bilateral relationship. 

In contrast, China has been exercising maximum restraint, saving the China-US relationship from falling down a perilous path towards a new cold war.

If Washington is really looking for practical engagement and cooperation with China, doing away with Trump's anti-China policies is an important first step, in addition to ending the trade war and attempts to remove listings of Chinese technology companies on Washington's so-called entity list. It is also imperative for the Biden administration respect and adhere to the one-China principle and stop encouraging Taiwan secessionists from seceding the island from China. Washington also needs to "phase down" its geopolitical maneuvering by encircling China with small groups like the Quad. 

For a time, the arrival of China as a global economic power has caused "heartburn" among elites in Washington. But China has been a major power for more than 4,000 years. If the politicians in Washington continue to engage in the blame game, demonizing and vilifying China on the world stage, China will just ignore them, while concentrating on building up its own strength. 

The author is an editor with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn