Sorry but the Biden and Xi meeting is about pomp and ceremony that Chinese value even if people believe nothing will come out of it. I'll bring my own gripe that people here long enough know I've mentioned where Beijing essentially begged to be a part of the International Space Station when they can completely make one on their own and look now. Why do the Chinese want to embarrass themselves like that? It's because they value looking like they're part of something major in the world as an example of how they're up there with the elite powers. China and other Asians care about stuff like that which is why also the petty Asian nationalists like to claim the US likes them better than the other. What does it get you? Nothing unless everyone values such nonsense. Which is why it makes it stupid.
The US does it too but it's only to make Americans thinks they're that important over everyone else. When this meeting between Biden and XI at the G20 was first announce, I heard it on the news framed as Biden accepted a meeting with Xi. It was the US that was perturbed that China as dragging its feet on a meeting and they framed it that China was waiting for the US to accept...?
There is some merit in your description with regard to "face" (Chinese term) or optics (US term) in Chinese mandarines. But three thing in the past 6 years fundamentally changed that.
(1) When Trump started the trade war, the Chinese "elites" was thinking toward "accommodation", a.k.a. 跪.
When Liu He brought the first draft home, the politburo could not accept. It was miscalculation on the part of Trump admin that scuttled the first draft. And Trump did not have the balls to stick with his "gun". So compromises were reached later with a watered down draft, a.k.a the phase one agreement. In the ensuing years, people in China found out that the results of the trade war were much less devastating that they first feared, and are on both sides, a.k.a. 伤敌八百自损一千. Fast forward to today, China has already been battle hardened in commercial trade. That is one fundamental reason China has not taking calls from US trade and economical officials in the past few years. Nowadays, "trade war" becomes a running joke inside China and people go on their life as if trade war was a Chinese kung fu drama.
(2) Covid-19 exposed some fundamental weaknesses of the western society otherwise not known before.
The west showed their true colors in racial discrimination against other races in the thick of the Covid-19 struggles. Covid-19 also exposed true colors of five-eyes vis-a-vis China. This is one fundamental reason the Millennials and the GenZs in China are among the most nationalistic in the Chinese society. Through Covid-19, the US (and west at large) completely lost the Chinese youths, who are among the most technological savvy with a brand new world view. Covid-19 also educated the fundamental difference between China and US in that, while US is the only constitutional country in the world, China is the same old moral nation under heaven. While the west can let millions of old weak seniors to whither, China has to do whatever it takes to take care the same old weak seniors within its boarder. As the result of the Covid-19s struggle, the Chinese society actually has been solidified more than ever before (at least during my lifetime). And Xi Jing ping has gained unprecedented moral authority out of it.
(3) Last but not the least, Xi Jing Ping.
Most west elites and many China elites either underestimated or misunderstood Xi Jing Ping since 2008, when he was promoted to be heir apparent. I actually has some lengthy arguments with my own friends who also misunderstand Xi. So let me give a few tidbits here.
(a) Xi is a classic "princelings". His father was a prominent elite from Long March to the founding of PRC. Unlike some other peers, the senior Xi never turned on Mao or the party even though he and his family suffered a great deal during the Culture Revolution. The junior Xi was at the receiving end because of his father's "sin". But also unlike other peers, a.k.a. fellow "princelings", the junior also never turned on Mao or the Party even though he was force to spend his 7 formative years in a poorest region in China. That experience only hardened him in a sense that he wanted to change that backwardness in the poorest regions of China.
(b) Xi Jing Ping's first job out of university was a secretary of General Geng Biao, who was a defence minister and also a long time close friend of the Senior Xi. That has given some first hand experience of PLA in Xi's young career. As a result, Xi also inherited some PLA culture and history.
(c) During Xi's tenor in Fu Jian province, he was squeezed by various senior cadres who were close to the Deng line or the Hu Yiao Bang faction. That situation only improved when he became the first party secretary of Fu Jian and after that Zhe Jiang. Xi is never in any faction from Deng or Jiang Ze Min or Hu Jing Tao. The rumor said he was chosen because Jiang and Hu could not agree on their own picks. And it was then vice president Zheng Qing Hong that convinced Jiang that Xi was probably the best choice to break the deadlock. As a result, Xi was sent to Shanghai for the first secretary (for only 9 months) and was on his way to be heir apparent.
Therefore, Xi is never a typical Chinese mandarine that US or west got used to dealing with. Whether you like Xi or not, he is arguably the most independent minded leader since Mao. Deng is a typical revisionist, as Mao once labeled him. But Xi certainly is more idealogical than Deng has ever been. Xi believes that Party or PLA or PRC are the same thing, as his military reform as well as party reform has testified. And when the top Chinese leader put poverty alleviation and party/military/nation over capitalistic interests, it is no wonder that none of capitalists likes him, whether they are western capitalists or Chinese capitalists. Just ask Jack Ma how he feels right now.
So my conclusion and short answer to the original poster above is that, for the first time in a long history, the top Chinese leadership no longer defers to the US demand, whether it is out of face (optics) or out of fear (of sanctions and containment). Today's China and its top leader is fundamentally different from even 10 years ago. Hence the grand miss-calculation and terrible misjudgment from the west in general and US in particular.
Buckle your seatbelt. We are heading to a bumpy ride.
