“Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed,” said Xi Jinping, China’s president, as he met his US counterpart Joe Biden in San Francisco. It was one of several upbeat messages between the US and Chinese leaders as they made their clearest bid to stabilise ties since a bitter trade war erupted in 2018. Though it remains tentative, the indications are that the two men achieved at least the beginnings of a “reset” in relations that have slumped to their lowest ebb in 40 years.

More than four hours of talks delivered some key agreements. Most significant was China’s undertaking to reopen military-to-military communications channels that it shut down after the then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022. Beijing said it would curb the export of chemicals used to make fentanyl, the potent synthetic opioid that has been linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths in the US.

There were signs of efforts, too, to reduce tensions over Taiwan. Xi is said to have voiced some “exasperation” over suggestions by US officials that China might use military action as early as 2027 to reunify the self-governing island with the mainland — and to have said there were no such plans. While Chinese officials have been unsettled by remarks by Biden that he would order the US military to defend Taiwan from a Chinese attack, the US president pointedly sidestepped post-meeting questions over whether he stood by those statements.