Seven months. That is how long Joe Biden waited before picking up the phone to call Xi Jinping.
The call itself lasted roughly 90 minutes. It was September 10, 2021. It was the first direct conversation between the two leaders since Biden took office. The White House framed it as a necessary step to keep competition between the two countries from turning into something worse.
The delay is the story. Biden did not call Xi in February, or March, or April. He did not call in May, June, July, or August. The previous administration under Donald Trump had already turned the relationship into a grinding economic war. Tariffs were in place. Sanctions were tightening. Both sides were dug in. Biden inherited that mess, and then he let it sit for more than half a year.
That is a long silence between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies. It suggests the White House was not eager to talk. It suggests the administration was still figuring out its own posture toward Beijing. It suggests that when the call finally happened, it was a calculated decision, not an automatic courtesy.
The stated goal, according to a White House statement, was to “ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer into conflict.” Biden himself said he wanted to discuss “necessary steps to resolve the dispute.” The language is careful. It does not say the two leaders resolved anything. It does not say they agreed on a path forward. It says they talked about the possibility of easing tensions. That is a long way from actually doing it.
The call covered the economic war between the two countries. That is the central dispute. It is not a small disagreement. It is a full-blown trade conflict that has disrupted supply chains, raised costs for businesses, and reshaped global trade patterns. A 90-minute phone call does not undo any of that. But it signals that both sides are willing to talk, at the highest level, without intermediaries.
There was also a recent development in the military channel. Last month, before the Biden-Xi call, a video conference took place between Major General Huang Jiping, who handles operations for China’s international military affairs, and his unnamed US counterpart. The topic was Afghanistan. That is significant. Afghanistan is not a bilateral issue between the US and China, but it is a shared security concern. The fact that the two militaries discussed it suggests a narrow channel of communication was already open, even while the political relationship remained frozen.
The call between Biden and Xi did not happen in a vacuum. That military discussion on Afghanistan was a precursor. It showed that both sides could talk when there was a practical reason to do so. The phone call between the presidents was the political follow-up.
What comes of it is an open question. The White House statement made clear that Biden wants to prevent competition from escalating into conflict. That is a floor, not a ceiling. It is the minimum acceptable outcome. It does not promise cooperation. It does not promise a resolution to the tariff war. It promises that the two sides will try not to start shooting at each other.
The call lasted 90 minutes. That is a long time for a diplomatic conversation between two leaders who have never spoken before. It suggests they covered a lot of ground. It suggests they had things to say to each other. But the only thing we know for certain is that the call happened. We do not know what was agreed to. We do not know if another call is scheduled. We do not know if the tone was warm or cold.
The fact that it took seven months to happen tells you something about the state of US-China relations. They are not normal. They are not friendly. They are not even reliably communicative. A single phone call is a start. It is not a fix.
