NUSA DUA, Indonesia  —  

Pledging to “manage” their fierce global competition, President Biden and China’s Xi Jinping on Monday sat down to their first in-person talks in years, appearing friendly and relaxed despite a nadir in relations between the world’s two superpowers.

The meeting in an Indonesia resort on the margins of the Group of 20 summit of the world’s leading economies lasted for several hours and came as the two countries spar over what Washington considers to be China’s oppression of dissidents and minorities at home and aggressive push to extend power and influence abroad. Beijing is angry over Biden’s maintenance of Trump-era trade restrictions and punitive sanctions that harm its economy.

It was Biden’s first face-to-face meeting with Xi since he became president, although the two leaders have dealt with each other for a decade. Xi recently engineered an unprecedented third term as leader of the Chinese Communist Party, virtually ensuring his status as president for life. 

“We share responsibility, in my view, to show that China and the United States can manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming anything ever to near-conflict and to find ways to work together on urgent global issues that require our mutual cooperation,” Biden said as the two men shook hands in front of a line of Chinese and U.S. flags.

Xi seemed to echo the sentiment. “The world expects that China and the United States will properly handle the relationship,” Xi said.

Flanked by their delegations, Biden and Xi then took their positions across from each other at two long tables. The Chinese each wore a white face mask adorned with a tiny red Chinese flag; the Americans wore black, white and other masks. Biden and Xi did not wear masks. Protocols over COVID protection were an issue, as Xi has been meticulous in avoiding international travel and enforcing a “zero-COVID” policy that has striven to stamp out breakouts of the disease with strict closures of entire cities