CHINA’S President Xi Jinping met for the last time with United States President Joe Biden on Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in the Peruvian capital, Lima.

During the talks Mr Xi said a stable relationship between China and the US was critical not only to the two nations but to the “future and destiny of humanity.”

He said: “Make the wise choice. Keep exploring the right way for two major countries to get along well with each other.

“In a major flourishing sci-tech revolution, neither decoupling nor supply chain disruption is a solution.”

President Xi said: “Only mutual, beneficial co-operation can lead to common development. ‘Small yard, high fence’ is not what a major country should pursue.”

Mr Xi appeared to signal his concern that president-elect Donald Trump’s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could worsen the China-US relationship.

President Xi said: “China is ready to work with a new US administration to maintain communication, expand co-operation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-US relationship for the benefit of the two peoples.”

Mr Biden, who is winding down after more than 50 years in US politics, talked in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship between the two countries has gone.

He said: “We haven’t always agreed, but our conversations have always been candid and always been frank. We’ve never kidded one another.

“These conversations prevent miscalculations, and they ensure the competition between our two countries will not veer into conflict.

Mr Biden also used the meeting to urge Mr Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. 

On Saturday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Mr Biden had reinforced to Mr Xi “that these next two months are a time of transition” and that the president would like to pass off the US-China relationship “in stable terms” to the new administration.