• Bloomberg - Quicktake

Join Bloomberg reporters Rebecca Choong Wilkins and Daniel Carvalho for a quick recap of the top three events that happened this week at APEC in Peru.

LIMA, Peru โ€” Chinaโ€™s leaderย Xi Jinpingย met for the last time with U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday but was already looking ahead to President-elect Donald Trump and his โ€œAmerica firstโ€ policies, saying Beijing โ€œis ready to work with a new U.S. administration."

In their talks on the sidelines of the annualย Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summitย in Peru's capital, Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea fromย further deepening its supportย for Russiaโ€™s war on Ukraine.

Without mentioning Trumpโ€™s name, Xi appeared to signal his concern that the incoming presidentโ€™s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could send the U.S.-China relationship into another valley.

President Joe Biden shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a bilateral meetingย Saturdayย in Lima, Peru.

โ€œChina is ready to work with a new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,โ€ Xi said through an interpreter.

Xi cautioned that a stable China-U.S. relationship was critical not only to the two nations, but also the โ€œfuture and destiny of humanity.โ€

โ€œMake the wise choice,โ€ he said. โ€œKeep exploring the right way for two major countries to get along well with each other.โ€

Xi, who is firmly entrenched atop Chinaโ€™s political hierarchy, spoke forcefully in his brief remarks before reporters. Biden, who is winding down more than 50 years of public service, talked in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship between the two countries has gone. He reflected not just on the past four years but on the decades the two have known each other.

โ€œWe havenโ€™t always agreed, but our conversations have always been candid and always been frank. Weโ€™ve never kidded one another,โ€ Biden said. โ€œThese conversations prevent miscalculations, and they ensure the competition between our two countries will not veer into conflict.โ€

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with President Joe Biden during a bilateral meetingย Saturday in Lima, Peru.

Biden and Xi, with top aides surrounding them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in an expansive conference room at Limaโ€™s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.

China โ€œhostedโ€ the meeting after Xi and Biden met last year on the APEC sidelines in Northern California, a gathering hosted by the U.S. They had much to discuss, includingย Chinaโ€™s indirect support for Russia, human rights issues, technology and Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy that Beijing claims as its own.

Thereโ€™sย much uncertaintyย about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levyย 60% tariffsย on Chinese imports.

Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans toย cut imports from Chinaย by as much as 45% next year.

In a congratulatory message to Trump after his victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, Xi called for the U.S. and China to manage their differences and get along in a new era. In front of the cameras Saturday, Xi spoke to Biden โ€” but it was unmistakable that his message was directed at Trump.

โ€œIn a major flourishing sci-tech revolution, neither decoupling nor supply chain disruption is a solution,โ€ Xi said. โ€œOnly mutual, beneficial cooperation can lead to common development. โ€˜Small yard, high fenceโ€™ is not what a major country should pursue.โ€

After he was greeted by Xi, Biden ignored shouted questions from reporters on his concerns about the incoming Trump administration as well as North Korea. The leaders also did not engage reporters after they made their brief comments at the start of the meeting.

President Joe Biden meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a bilateral meeting Saturday in Lima, Peru.

End of an era for Biden

Biden administration officials would advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge it will face, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

Biden has viewed his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating it. The two first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.

โ€œFor over a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, both here and in China and in between," Biden said. โ€œWeโ€™ve spent a long time dealing with these issues.โ€

But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.

The FBI this weekย offered new details of a federal investigationย intoย Chinese governmentย efforts to hack into U.S. telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a โ€œbroad and significantโ€ย cyberespionage campaignย aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.

U.S. intelligence officials also have assessed Chinaย has surged sales to Russiaย of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use inย its war against Ukraine.

From left to right, top, Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, U.S. President Joe Biden and Vietnam's President Luong Cuong, and bottom, from left, South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol and Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim pose Saturday for aย leaders' group photo at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima, Peru.

Tensions flared last year after Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.

Biden is looking for Xi toย step up Chinese engagementย to prevent an already dangerous moment with North Korea from further escalating.

Biden, South Korean President Yoon Seok Yul and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Fridayย condemned North Korean leader Kim Jong Unโ€™s decisionย to send thousands of troops to help Moscow repel Ukrainian forces who have seized territory in Russiaโ€™s Kursk border region.

Biden called it โ€œdangerous and destabilizing cooperation.โ€

White House officials expressed frustration with Beijing, which accounts for the vast majority of North Koreaโ€™s trade, for not doing more to rein in Pyongyang.

The North Koreans also have provided Russia with artillery and other munitions, according to U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials. And the U.S., Japan and South Korea have expressed alarm over Pyongyangโ€™s stepped-upย cadence of ballistic missile tests.

Kim ordered testing exercises in the lead-up to this monthโ€™s U.S. election and is claiming progress on efforts to buildย capability to strike the U.S. mainland.

Xi and Biden started their day at the leadersโ€™ retreat at the APEC summit, taking part in a photo where they all wore scarves made from vicuรฑa wool, a symbolic animal for Peru. Itโ€™s common practice that leaders at these gatherings are given a gift โ€” usually traditional clothing of the host country โ€” that they don for the photo.

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