BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mixed Thursday in Europe and Asia after a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping that yielded no big…
Shares were mixed Thursday in Europe and Asia after a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping that yielded no big breakthroughs, though both sides said it was constructive.
Any lift in sentiment from a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping appeared to fade after Biden, pressed by a reporter on whether he trusted Xi, said he believed in trusting but verifying and conceded that China’s leader is a dictator.
“He is a dictator in a sense,” Biden said. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, said, “Such a remark is extremely wrong and is irresponsible political manipulation.”
Biden and Xi emerged from their first face-to-face meeting in a year vowing to stabilize the fraught relationship between the world’s two biggest economies. They showcased modest agreements to combat illicit fentanyl and re-establish military communications. Rifts on economic competition and global security threats persist, but Biden said they agreed to “pick up the phone” and talk if urgent issues arise.
Investors have grown cautious, also, over expectations that the Federal Reserve might be finished with interest rate hikes meant to curb inflation and over the assumption that it has succeeded in navigating a “soft landing” for the U.S. economy, analysts said.
