The achievement of this year’s Biden-Xi summit is, simply, the meeting itself

As President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet in San Francisco today, the two leaders find themselves in different positions than when they met last year in Bali, Indonesia.

Back then, each was in a position of strength — Biden coming out of a triumphant midterm election and Xi a well-orchestrated party conference that solidified his rule — and both used that first in-person meeting as an occasion to soothe tensions.

Then came the Chinese balloon floating over the United States that tore at the already tenuous condition of US-China relations....