Easing of relations. That's how it sounds after a three-hour meeting between the two men, who publicly acknowledged that a conflict between them would not help either of them, that communication had to continue and that their economies were too interdependent to try to turn the tables. This is good news for all the other countries that are caught, in one way or another, between these two superpowers.

The other news is not so good. Unsurprisingly, each of the two men stuck to his gun. The Chinese head of state quickly closed the subject of Taiwan, censoring any American insertion in the debate. On the subject of Ukraine, the head of the Communist Party did not give much. If he opposed the potential use of nuclear weapons in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and expressed himself in favor of a resumption of talks, he refused to condemn Vladimir Putin's offensive on his neighbor.

For his part, Biden tackled the delicate issue of human rights and the forced labour of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and reaffirmed his support for Tibet and Hong Kong in particular. However, he called on his interlocutor for help on the thorny North Korean problem, and urged him to use his influence to calm the ardor of Kim Jong-Un. It is not certain that he will be heard, at a time when the latter is deploying a record number of missiles around its borders.

But that is the game of international diplomacy. "There are cases where the whole art of diplomacy consists in keeping problems intact as long as possible," wrote André Frossard, a French academician whose existence I am just discovering (forgive my lack of culture).

*The Guandao is a traditional Chinese white weapon.

Drawing by Amandine Victor for MarketScreener