Obama and Xi Must Dispel U.S.-China ‘Strategic Distrust’

This week’s between U.S. President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping of China offers an unprecedented opportunity for the two leaders to get to know each other amid the therapeutic sunshine of the California desert. Maybe the arid air will help clear the “strategic distrust” that has grown between their two nations.

After all, it’s not as if they lack strong incentives to forge a good working relationship. For starters, China’s management of its economic slowdown will inevitably affect the U.S.’s nascent recovery, and vice versa. Each also needs to create some space to focus on huge domestic and external challenges. Even as Xi seeks to engineer a soft landing, he must mitigate the strains caused by urbanization and rising pollution, and shore up the Chinese Communist Party’s legitimacy by cracking down on corruption. Meanwhile, Obama’s ability to resolve crises in Syria, Iran or North Korea depends in no small part on China’s cooperation.