<\/p>\n
US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed at their first summit in a year on Wednesday to restore military communications between the two countries, even as Biden went off script by saying he still considered Xi a \u201cdictator\u201d.<\/p>\n
The leaders shook hands and strolled around a garden at a historic California estate during four-hour talks aimed at preventing growing tensions between the world\u2019s largest economies from spiraling into conflict.<\/p>\n
They also agreed that China would crack down on the production of ingredients for fentanyl, responsible for a deadly epidemic of opioid abuse in the United States, with Xi saying he \u201csympathises\u201d with US victims of the deadly drug, which has ravaged communities across the country.<\/p>\n
But Xi and Biden remained far apart on the wider flashpoint of Taiwan<\/a>, with the Chinese president telling his US counterpart to stop arming the island and that reunification was \u201cunstoppable\u201d.<\/p>\n Beijing claims sovereignty over the self-ruling democracy and has not ruled out seizing it by force.<\/p>\n